THE 

CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 


mmummmmmmmmmmm 


M  ■  /d  ■ 


PRINCETON,  N.  J.  ty 


Purchased   by  the    Hamill    Missionary   Fund. 


BV  2063  .T3  1914 
Taylor,  Alva  W.  1871-1957. 
The  social  work  of  Christian 
missions 


THE  SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN 
MISSIONS 


- — 


APR  16  1915 


The  Social  Work  of 
Christian   Missions 


By/ 
ALVA  W.  TAYLOR 

Professor  of  Social  Service  and  Christian  Missions  in 
The  Bible  College  of  Missouri 


% 


THIRD  PRINTING 


Cincinnati 

The  Foreign  Christian  Missionary  Society 

1914 


COPYRIGHT,    1911 
BY   ALVA   W.    TAYLOR 


PREFACE 


This  volume  is  designed  for  those  who  are  inter- 
ested in  the  humanitarian  phases  of  Christian  missions. 
The  paramount  interests  of  our  time  are  social.  For- 
eign missions  furnish  an  inexhaustible  opportunity 
for  social  endeavor,  and  contribute  annals  in  social 
progress  such  as  are  being  written  in  no  other  field  of 
human  endeavor.  It  is  the  hope  of  the  author  that 
this  volume  may  be  a  source  of  information  and  in- 
spiration to  those  who  have  been  aroused  by  present- 
day  missionary  movements  among  laymen,  women, 
students,  and  the  young  people  of  the  Churches.  It 
is  especially  designed  as  a  help  to  mission  classes  in 
schools  and  churches.  For  those  classes  that  desire 
a  short  series  of  studies  the  introduction,  the  six  chap- 
ters, and  a  review  will  furnish  a  division  of  material; 
for  those  who  wish  a  series  of  lessons  extending  over 
a  longer  period,  one  or  more  sections  can  be  used  for 
each  assignment.  The  sources  for  the  work  are  enu- 
merated in  a  bibliography  at  the  end  of  the  volume. 
An  especial  debt  is  due  Volume  III,  of  Dr.  Dennis, 
great  work  on  "Christian  Missions  and  Social  Prog- 
ress," in  the  writing  of  sections  2,  3,  and  4  of  Chapter 

5 


PREFACE 

V,  and  to  Dr.  Williamson's  little  volume  entitled, 
"The  Healing  of  the  Nations,"  in  sections  3  and  4,  in 
Chapter  III,  and  to  Volume  VIII,  of  the  Edinburgh 
Conference  Report,  in  section  3  of  Chapter  VIII.  I 
am  grateful  to  my  colleague,  Professor  Charles  E. 
Underwood,  for  assistance  in  revising  the  manuscript. 


CONTENTS 


INTRODUCTION 

PAGE 

The  Social  Task  of  Missions 11 

1.  The  Missionary  as  a  Social  Force,      (ll) 

2.  The  Social  Work  of  the  Missionary.     (16) 

3.  Christianity  as  the  Universal  Faith.      (25) 

CHAPTER  I 

Things  Figures  Can  not  Tell 33 

1.  By  Their  Fruits  Ye  Shall  Know  Them.      (33) 

2.  The  Story  of  the  Figures.      (39) 

3.  The  Leaven  in  the  Lump.      (49) 

4.  Time  and  the  Tides.      (56) 

5.  The  Man  and  the  Idea.      (64) 

CHAPTER  II 

The  Home:  The  Corner-Stone  of  Civiliza- 
tion        71 

1.  House  or  Home.      (7l) 

2.  The  Index  of  Progress.      (79) 

3.  Man  Everything,  Woman  Nothing.      (84) 

4.  The  Divine  Right  of  Childhood.      (93) 

5.  The  Missionary  Home,  A  Social  Center.    (99) 

7 


CONTENTS 
CHAPTER  III 

PAGE 

Benevolence  :  The  Heart  of  Social  Progress,     107 

1.  The  Evangel  of  Humanity.     (107) 

2.  Clinical  Christianity,     (l  13) 

3.  The  Devastations  of  Ignorance,     (l  19) 

4.  One  Multiplied  by  a  Thousand.     (127) 

5.  Conquest  at  the  Point  of  the  Lancet.     (132) 

CHAPTER  IV 
Education:  The  Means  of  Progress 141 

1.  The  Missionary  Contribution  to  Culture.  (l4l) 

2.  Creating  a  Leadership.     (150) 

3.  Turning  Liabilities  into  Assets.     (156) 

4.  Teaching  the  Mothers  of  the  Race.     (163) 

5.  Education  as  an  Evangelizing  Agency.     (169) 

CHAPTER  V 

The  Missionary  and  the  Affairs  of  the 

World 176 

1.  The   Missionary  and  Other    Powers  of 

Progress.      (176) 

2.  The    Political    Influence    of    the    Mis- 

sionary.    (181) 

3.  Making    Two    Blades    of    Grass    Grow 

Where  One  Grew  Before.     (189) 

4.  The  Pioneer  of  Civilization.     (195) 

5.  The  Missionary  and  Universal  Peace.     (201) 

8 


CONTENTS 
CHAPTER  VI 

PAGE 

The  Social  Way  to  Unity 209 

1.  The  Field  and  the  Kingdom.     (209) 

2.  The  Things  that  Unite  and  the  Things 

that  Divide.     (215) 

3.  Breaking  Down  the  Walls  of  Division.     (22 1) 

4.  The  Day  of  Opportunity.     (228) 

5.  The  Call  of  the  Cross.     (234) 

Appendix 241 

Bibliography.     (241) 
Class  Questions.     (245) 

Index 258 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


FACING  PAGE 

Reading  Room  in  Y.  M.  C.  A.  at  Tienstin, 

China 15 

Baseball  Team    of    St.  John's  University, 

Shanghai,  China 22 

Old  Examination  Stalls  at  Nankin,  China  . .  35 

A  Modern  School  at  Chentu,  West  China  . .  35 
A  Native  Church,  Marshall  Islands,  South 

Pacific  Seas 62 

Officers  of  a  Native  Church  in  the  Mar- 
shall Islands 62 

Rahuni  Vernacular   School,  Marathi    Mis- 
sion, West  India 93 

A  Missionary  Home  in  the  Tropics 99 

Hospital  at  Hanyang,  China Ill 

Koords,   Syrians,  and   Moslems    in  a  Mis- 
sionary Clinic 118 

A  Chinese  Orphan  Girl  before  and  after 

Treatment  in  a  Missionary  Hospital.  .  118 
Native  Medical  Staff,  Union  Medical  Col- 
lege, Peking 132 

Dormitory,  Union  Medical  College,  Peking.  132 

Ajiner  College,  North  India 146 

A  Class  in  Carpentry,  Rhodesia,  Africa 156 

Cotton  Weaving  in  India 156 

First  Class  of  Christian  Inquirers  in  Tibet.  172 

Advanced  Class  in  Urumia  College,  Persia.  172 

Hospital  Ward,  Kiukiang,  Central  China..  180 

Reid  Christian  College,  Lucknow,  India  ...  195 

Sectional  View  of  Nankin  University 223 

Faculty  of  Nankin  University 233 

10 


INTRODUCTION 


THE  SOCIAL  TASK  OF  MISSIONS 

1.    The  Missionary  as  a  Social  Force. 

Christianity  is  the  religion  of  humanity.  Jesus 
most  often  spoke  of  himself  as  the  Son  of  Man.  In 
the  use  of  that  term  he  desired  to  identify  himself 
with  humanity.  He  was  God's  idea  of  a  man.  In  his 
humanity  we  find  one  of  the  divinest  factors  in  revela- 
tion. There  is  little  danger  that  the  Church  will 
lose  sight  of  his  divinity.  It  has  ever  emphasized 
his  oneness  with  God  the  Father,  but  it  has  not  al- 
ways so  emphasized  his  oneness  with  men.  If  we  have 
not  a  divine  Christ  we  have  no  Christ,  but  if  we  lose 
the  human  in  Christ,  we  lose  his  power  to  reach  the 
world.  The  Apostle's  great  desire  for  his  followers 
was  that  they  "might  rise  to  the  fullness  of  the  stature 
of  manhood  which  is  found  in  Christ  Jesus."  To  be 
a  perfect  man  is  to  be  Godlike.  It  was  to  that  per- 
fection of  manliness  that  Jesus  wished  to  lift  the  world. 
And  true  Christianity  goes  into  the  world  to  create 
manhood  and  womanhood.  But  Christian  manhood 
is  never  selfish;  it  "seeks  not  its  own,  is  not  puffed  up." 
Jesus  would  save  the  world  by  making  men  the  sav- 
iors of  their  kind.  There  is  no  salvation  except  through 
service.     The  Christian  individual  is  socialized.     In- 

11 


INTRODUCTION 

dividual  power  without  social  conscience  is  the  most 
dangerous  weapon  to  put  into  mortal  hands.  The 
writer  who  said  it  was  worth  while  to  fertilize  the  fields 
of  Europe  with  the  blood  of  millions  if  thereby  one 
Napoleon  could  be  created,  expressed  the  very  an- 
tithesis of  Christianity. 

The  socialized  individual  is  the  real  working  factor 
in  the  world's  uplift.  A  materialistic  evolution  may 
sneer  at  the  missionary  and  at  all  benevolence,  but  a 
Christian  evolution  sees  in  benevolence  the  most 
active  factor  in  the  civilizing  process.  When  Emerson 
described  civilization  in  terms  of  woman's  power  and 
influence,  he  only  described  it  in  terms  of  benevolence, 
for  it  is  the  spirit  of  altruism  that  overcomes  selfish- 
ness and  compels  man  to  give  womankind  their  rights. 
The  progress  of  civilization  can  be  told  in  terms  of 
altruism  and  the  processes  of  socialization.  Strong 
individuals  may  be  developed  by  the  "struggle  for 
self,"  but  society  advances  through  the  "struggle 
for  others."  This  "struggle  for  others"  is  the  law 
of  Christianity.  It  is  the  ferment  of  social  service 
that  is  leavening  the  world  with  good.  Christian 
personality  is  not  that  of  the  "superman,"  but  that 
of  the  great-hearted  lover  of  his  kind;  it  has  an  "en- 
thusiasm of  humanity,"  the  power  to  see  the  view- 
point of  others,  to  sympathetically  enter  into  their 
lives  and  to  lift  them  up.  The  missionary  is  the 
model  of  Christly  aspiration  in  his  faith  in  humanity's 
potentiality,  and  in  his  self-forgetting  determination 
to  lift  up  the  lowest  of  men. 

The  Kingdom  of  God  is  a  new  social  order.  It  is 
a  Republic  of  Humanity,  a  realization  of  the  life  of 

12 


INTRODUCTION 

God  in  the  society  of  men.  Jesus  said  his  mission 
was  "to  give  life  and  to  give  it  more  abundantly." 
To  give  life  one  must  give  the  things  that  make  life 
worth  while.  He  can  not  give  life  to  the  slum  and  leave 
the  slum,  nor  can  he  take  it  to  the  heathen  world  and 
leave  the  world  heathen.  Shakespeare  said,  "  He  who 
takes  the  prop  to  my  house  takes  my  house."  The 
goods  of  life  are  its  "props."  A  man's  life  does  not 
consist  in  the  abundance  of  the  things  he  possesses,  but 
his  possessions  in  terms  of  habit,  custom,  ideas,  homes, 
friends,  environment,  and  ideals  are  so  much  a  part 
of  him  that  the  worth  of  the  lives  of  men  are  largely 
measured  by  the  value  of  such  possessions.  The  King- 
dom of  God  is  to  be  rooted  into  the  earth.  The  task 
of  Christ  was  to  save  the  world,  not  merely  to  save  a 
few  out  of  the  world.  The  "kingdoms  of  this  world 
are  to  become  those  of  our  Lord  and  his  Christ."  He 
would  save  commerce  to  honesty  and  a  true  social 
service;  politics  to  purity  and  as  the  chief  bond  of 
communities  in  their  fraternal  life;  religion  to  human 
service  and  as  the  strongest  factor  for  binding  the  peo- 
ples of  the  earth  together.  The  Kingdom  of  God  is  to 
include  all  nations  and  peoples  in  a  social  bond  that 
will  put  an  end  to  strife  and  bloodshed,  and  bring  peace 
to  all  the  earth.  It  is  to  so  reorder  human  relation- 
ship that  all  men  will  be  privileged  to  dwell  in  a  de- 
mocracy of  right,  where  there  will  be  no  tyranny,  no 
expropriation  of  the  things  of  another,  no  class  privi- 
lege, and  no  deprivation  of  opportunity  to  him  who  is 
worthy.  Its  ideal  may  be  millenniums  away,  but  vast 
strides  have  already  been  made  toward  it,  and  if  one 
has  faith  in  the  eternal  purpose  and  might,  he  can  not 

13 


INTRODUCTION 

doubt  the  final  issue.  But  men  are  "to  be  workers 
together  with  God,"  in  bringing  these  things  to  pass. 
A  theological  Christianity  has  failed  to  save  the 
world.  The  saving  power  of  Christianity  has  ever 
been  its  interest  in  men  and  its  faith  that  the  fact  of 
Christ,  once  planted  in  their  hearts,  would  accomplish 
the  task.  We  must  have  a  theology.  It  is  only  a 
systematic  statement  of  our  knowledge  and  theory 
of  divine  things.  But  sociological  Christianity  is 
our  knowledge  and  theory  at  work.  Henry  D.  Lloyd 
called  it  "organized  friendliness."  In  the  middle 
ages  it  was  thought  an  acceptance  of  the  creed  was  suf- 
ficient unto  salvation.  Peoples  were  given  the  choice 
of  the  dogma  or  the  sword.  St.  Olaf  went  through 
Scandinavia,  singing  psalms  and  coercing  by  the  sword, 
until  he  had  "Christianized"  the  land.  Charlemagne 
sent  priest  and  soldier  together,  and  our  Anglo-Saxon 
forefathers  accepted  death  by  the  thousands  rather 
than  take  that  kind  of  "salvation."  Great  bishops 
used  the  pomp  and  awe  of  ceremonial,  and  lured  with 
promises  of  escape  from  torment  by  mere  submission 
to  baptism  and  an  abandonment  of  the  idols.  St. 
Xavier  sprinkled  drops  of  water  on  the  heads  of 
multitudes  in  Goa  and  reported  tens  of  thousands  of 
conversions;  ringing  his  bell,  he  would  call  the  crowds 
together,  and  the  simple  message,  "be  baptized  and 
you  are  saved,"  found  little  opposition;  but  he  left 
no  better  life  behind  him.  Charlemagne  established 
churches  and  schools,  and  lifted  up  the  converted 
masses  somewhat,  but  his  converts  were  mostly  "bap- 
tized pagans,"  and  Europe  was  Christian  in  name  only. 
The  same  story  is  written  in  the  history  of  Latin 

14 


INTRODUCTION 

America.  It  is  yet  starkly  heathen  for  the  most  part. 
There  was  no  social  message;  Christianity  did  not 
mean  the  implanting  of  new  ideals  of  society.  It  is 
in  its  social  message  that  Christianity  outruns  the 
other  missionary  religions  in  its  permanent  power  to 
uplift,  and  in  the  measure  that  it  has  implanted  social 
principles,  has  its  missionary  message  taken  the  rootage 
among  a  people  that  brought  permanent  success.  It 
becomes  a  civilizer  through  its  implanting  of  humane 
principles  and  social  ideals  in  the  hearts  of  its  converts, 
and  they  leaven  the  whole  of  the  life  about  them. 
Immediate  conversion  is  not  always  the  means  of  doing 
the  best  work.  The  planting  of  the  Kingdom  of  God 
may  be  slow,  but  it  will,  in  the  end,  bring  forth  its 
fruitage  in  the  greater  abundance  if  it  is  securely 
planted.  No  true  missionary  despises  numbers,  neither 
does  he  count  names  on  the  church  roll  his  success; 
his  gauge  of  success  is  that  of  regenerate  lives  and  the 
building  up  of  a  community  of  regenerate  folk,  with 
all  the  endowments  of  modern  Christian  civilization. 
A  civilization  can  not  be  lifted  by  speculation  or  by 
a  syllogism,  and  it  was  never  lifted  by  a  legend.  It  is 
not  our  theories  about  Christ,  but  our  implanting 
of  the  life  of  Christ,  with  all  it  means  to  our  civiliza- 
tion in  higher  ideals,  purer  thinking,  better  homes, 
greater  equality,  more  value  on  life  as  such,  a  higher 
standard  of  living,  and  more  of  the  spirit  of  service, 
that  brings  the  world  to  him.  When  we  "take  chem- 
ists for  our  cooks,  and  mineralogists  for  our  masons," 
we  will  put  our  dependence  in  a  theological  Christian- 
ity to  save  the  world.  "The  old  creeds  are  not  fitted 
to  harmonize  with  the  intellectual,  social,  and  moral 

15 


INTRODUCTION 

power  of  the  modern  world,"  says  Mr.  T.  E.  Slater,  of 
India. 

The  new-born  society  of  the  missionary  community 
means  problems  in  dress  reform,  in  housing,  in  hygiene 
and  sanitation,  in  education  and  the  art  of  healing, 
in  more  democratic  relationships,  a  new  family  order, 
in  the  readjustment  of  the  place  of  womankind  in 
society  and  the  home,  and,  in  time,  in  railroad  build- 
ing, international  commerce,  diplomacy,  and  all  those 
arts  of  social  intercourse  that  characterize  civilization 
at  its  highest.  Through  these  arts  of  socialization 
and  civilization  the  missionary  confers  upon  all  the 
society  about  his  Christian  community  the  social 
blessings  of  his  gospel.  He  thus  lifts  all  into  a  more 
proximate  relationship  to  his  gospel,  and  shortens 
the  step  they  must  take  in  order  to  come  into  the  King- 
dom. Then  he  may  hope  for  true  "mass  conversions." 
Most  men  move  with  the  crowd;  they  think  and  act 
together.  When  all  custom  and  thought  is  lifted 
near  the  Christian  level,  multitudes  find  it  possible 
to  join  the  Christian  host. 

2.    The  Social  Work  of  the  Missionary. 

The  missionary  is  the  pioneer  of  all  progress 
among  the  nations  to  which  he  goes.  Following  the 
method  of  his  Master,  he  goes  to  change  the  hearts 
of  individuals,  and  when  he  has  changed  their  hearts 
he  has  so  changed  their  attitude  toward  all  life  that 
he  has  inaugurated  a  new  era  in  their  midst.  The 
change  he  makes  in  them  is  such  that  all  better  things 
are  a  part  of  their  future  quest. 

The  social  question  is  simply  the  question  of  the 
16 


INTRODUCTION 

other  fellow.  Its  final  solution  rests  in  the  Golden 
Rule  and  the  caring  for  things  of  others  as  if  they  were 
our  own.  Heathenism  cares  little  for  the  other  fellow. 
It  has  no  charity  worthy  the  name;  it  knows  little  of 
self-control  in  appetite,  temper,  or  ambition;  its  gods 
are  selfish,  and  its  passions  are  intemperate;  its  con- 
ceit is  monumental  and  commensurate  only  with  its 
ignorance;  each  seeks  that  which  is  his  own,  and  the 
fates  may  take  the  hindmost.  There  is  little  social 
welfare  attempted  by  paganism;  Christianity  alone 
rests  upon  social  service. 

Like  his  Master,  the  missionary  goes  to  give  a  more 
abundant  life.  He  creates  within  man  a  desire  for 
the  larger  things,  and  so  adds  to  their  lives  that  living 
becomes  a  new  thing  to  them.  It  has  been  said  that 
when  a  savage  is  converted,  he  immediately  wants  a 
stool,  a  suit  of  clothes,  and  a  book.  The  first  is  the 
symbol  of  all  those  implements  of  domestic  art  that 
make  for  home  and  domestic  comfort;  the  second 
stands  for  decency,  courtesy,  and  virtue;  the  last  is 
the  beginning  of  education. 

Let  it  be  here  said  that  the  missionary  does  not 
go  to  impose  an  American  type  of  architecture  or 
tailoring,  nor  to  make  any  peculiar  Western  custom 
of  living  the  distinctive  type  of  the  new  manner  of 
life.  He  is  not  sent  to  Anglicize  or  Occidentalize, 
but  to  create  a  new  heart  and  to  reorder  native  customs 
according  to  the  dictates  of  cleanliness,  both  within 
and  without.  When  he  has  created  the  new  creature, 
he  needs  but  to  lead  him  in  the  cleansing  and  repair 
of  his  ancient  habits  of  life,  and  a  rebuilding  according 
to  the  environment  in  which  his  lot  is  cast,  and  by  the 

2  17 


INTRODUCTION 

best  use  of  the  material  that  fortune  has  placed  at 
his  hand.  It  is  not  the  missioner's  part  to  change 
racial  customs,  except  where  they  are  hurtful.  He  is 
there  to  build  up  a  nationalism,  and  create  a  patriotism 
that  is  peculiar  to  the  people  to  whom  he  has  gone. 
It  is  not  his  task  to  plant  a  foreign  flag,  nor  is  he 
the  emissary  of  commerce,  though  his  work  opens  the 
pathway  for  the  trade  of  all  industrial  peoples. 

The  new  aspiration  is  the  beginning  of  all  things 
new.  Bishop  Colenso  was  a  brilliant  and  benevolent 
man.  He  reasoned,  however,  that  as  in  religion  is 
the  quintessence  of  human  attainment  and  refinement, 
it  could  be  best  taught  after  a  barbarous  people  had 
learned  some  of  the  arts  of  civilization  and  been  brought 
by  education  to  a  state  where  they  could  appreciate 
the  high  things  of  the  spirit.  He  accordingly  went 
to  the  Zulus  with  industrial  schools,  and  offered  them 
better  houses  to  dwell  in.  They  looked  on  with  awe, 
but  did  not  see  why  they  should  adopt  the  white  man's 
house  or  implements,  and  made  little  attempt  to  imi- 
tate. Two  humble  and  unlearned  Dutch  missionaries 
had  founded  a  mission  a  day's  journey  away,  in  the 
simple  faith  that  if  they  could  create  a  new  heart  in 
the  black  man,  all  these  other  things  could  be  added. 
They  taught  heart  and  hand  together.  After  some 
years  of  effort,  Colenso  rode  across  to  their  mission 
one  day,  and  throwing  a  bag  of  fifty  golden  sovereigns 
on  the  office  table,  said,  "You  have  won."  Samuel 
Marsden  tried  to  put  the  material  arts  of  civilization 
first  in  New  Zealand  and,  after  twenty  years  of  trial, 
confessed  his  error  in  method;  within  a  single  genera- 
tion the  whole  people  were  transformed  by  putting 

18 


INTRODUCTION 

first  things  first  and  creating  a  new  life  within  the 
savage  Maori  breast.  When  Christianity  had  found 
lodgment  in  the  heart  of  the  savage  Africander,  he 
nursed  his  benefactor,  Robert  Moffat,  with  the  tender- 
ness of  a  woman.  The  French  gave  the  Arabs  stone 
cabins,  and  the  proud,  old  sheik  thanked  them  for 
so  excellent  a  shelter  for  his  sheep.  The  Canadians 
built  cedar  huts  for  the  Chippewas  of  the  Northwest, 
and  they  herded  their  dogs  in  them,  while  they  held 
to  the  immemorial  custom  of  freezing  in  wigwams. 
The  missionary  went  to  both,  and  by  creating  a  new 
desire,  taught  them  to  build  their  own  houses.  Wher- 
ever he  goes,  the  nomads  build  fixed  habitations,  the 
warlike  become  tillers  of  the  soil,  the  piratical  learn 
the  arts  of  industry,  and  the  slave-holding  come  to 
honor  labor. 

Buckle  lays  it  down  as  an  axiom  in  the  philosophy 
of  history,  that  progress  comes  from  within — it  can 
not  be  conferred  as  a  gift,  it  must  be  won  out  of  a  de- 
sire that  will  fit  for  its  attainment.  It  is  for  that 
reason  that  men,  who,  like  Sir  Andrew  Frasier,  have 
been  colonial  administrators  for  thirty  years,  testify 
that  Christian  missionaries  do  more  than  all  the  power 
of  an  empire  can  do  to  regenerate  a  nation. 

No  more  effective  testimony  to  the  social  benefits 
of  Christian  missions  could  be  given  than  the  contrast 
between  two  villages — the  one  heathen  and  the  other 
Christian.  In  the  heathen  village  the  garbage  is 
in  the  street,  the  houses  are  in  a  more  or  less  tumble- 
down condition,  the  roofs  are  awry  and  full  of  leaks, 
the  children  run  naked,  the  women  are  in  rags,  dirt 
is  omnipresent,  vice  is  written  on  most  of  the  counte- 

19 


INTRODUCTION 

nances,  hoplessness  overcasts  the  faces  of  the  many, 
and  absurd  custom,  with  its  counterpart  of  supersti- 
tion, is  everywhere  rife.  In  the  Christian  village  the 
house  may  be  no  larger,  but  it  will  be  clean;  the  toil 
may  be  little  more  remunerative,  but  it  will  be  more 
persistent;  the  children  will  be  clothed,  and  the  women 
neat  in  native  garments;  the  village  street  no  longer 
reeks  with  filth,  and  an  angle  of  uprightness  has  seized 
upon  things;  faces  take  on  a  new  light,  hope  is  in  every 
countenance,  and  superstition  has  given  place  to  an 
enlightenment  that  is  in  striking  contrast  to  the  old 
manner  of  living  and  doing.  The  ribaldry  of  heathen 
song  has  given  over  to  the  quiet  of  Christian  cheer, 
the  riot  of  heathen  sport  has  surrendered  to  the  order- 
liness of  Christian  pleasure,  and  in  place  of  the  vile 
rites  of  superstition  comes  an  enlightenment  wherein 
instruction  in  righteousness  and  temperance  is  made 
to  worship  God. 

The  missionary's  home  is  a  social  settlement  in 
the  midst  of  a  pagan  community.  There  he  exemplifies 
the  improvements  that  civilization  offers  to  humble 
natives,  and  shows  forth  the  heart  of  it  in  the  art  of 
Christian  living.  There  woman  is  honored  and  chil- 
dren accorded  rights  that  heathenism  has  never  rec- 
ognized. On  these  two  facts  the  arch  of  civilization's 
triumph  is  founded,  and  the  key  of  it  is  Christian  love. 

The  missionary  translates  books  on  every  theme 
that  relates  to  human  welfare,  and  opens  a  new  world 
to  the  astonished  eyes  of  ancient  half-civilizations. 
He  inaugurates  philanthropy  and  heals  the  bodies  of  the 
sick  and  provides  for  the  lives  of  the  abandoned  and 
teaches  the  blessed  art  of  caring  for  one  another.     The 

20 


INTRODUCTION 

old  barbaric  heartlessness  is  supplanted  by  a  touch  of 
mercy,  and  self-immolation  and  mutilation  give  way 
to  deeds  of  fellow-help.  He  plants  schools  and  is 
to-day  actually  instructing  more  than  a  million  and  a 
half  of  the  youth  of  pagan  lands.  From  these  come 
the  makers  of  to-morrow  in  every  heathen  nation. 
Through  his  institutions  of  learning  in  China,  the 
whole  empire  has  changed  immemorial  customs  of  in- 
struction. Verbeck  taught  the  makers  of  the  new 
Japan  and  founded  the  Imperial  University  in  Tokio. 
The  industrial  schools  at  Lovedale  and  Blantyre  have 
been  multiplied  into  hundreds,  and  from  each  goes 
forth  a  roll  of  men  with  new  hearts,  trained  minds, 
and  skilled  hands,  ready  for  the  practical  work  of 
starting  civilization.  Education  and  philanthropy 
become  the  web  upon  which  Christianity,  by  the 
hands  of  the  missioner,  weaves  the  woof  of  a  nation's 
life  into  a  new  fabric.  He  is  the  only  foreigner  there 
with  no  exploiting  aim,  but  only  to  do  the  people  good. 
For  a  time  he  may  not  be  comprehended,  and  may 
often  have  to  suffer  for  the  judgment  others  have  be- 
gotten in  the  native  mind  for  all  men  of  his  color, 
but  in  the  end  he  is  understood  and  multitudes  arise 
to  call  him  blessed. 

Missionaries  have  done  more  than  evangelize, 
translate  books,  found  schools  and  hospitals,  teach 
industry,  and  preach  the  gospel  by  a  model  home 
life  and  a  character  that  is  upright.  They  have  ad- 
vised governments  regarding  important  innovations 
making  for  progress  and  peace.  They  have  added  to 
earning  power  by  invention,  and  have  introduced 
revolutionary    ideas    in    commerce    and    agriculture. 

21 


INTRODUCTION 

They  have  overcome  hurtful  customs  in  the  name  of 
comfort  and  humanity,  and  opened  new  avenues  for 
adding  to  the  material  welfare  of  the  people.  They 
have  taught  native  races  the  value  of  untouched  re- 
sources and  the  waste  of  uneconomic  habits.  There 
has  been  no  boon  that  could  be  given  that  they  have 
not  given,  and  in  their  delivery  of  a  religious  message 
they  have  ever  counted  that  any  gift  made  to  the 
intelligence,  comfort,  cleanliness,  neighborliness,  earn- 
ing capacity,  or  any  other  means  of  social  welfare, 
was  a  part  of  their  work  and  an  honor  to  their  Master, 
who  went  about  doing  good. 

Heathenism  has  never  valued  life  highly  for  its 
own  sake.  For  that  reason  suicide  has  been  easy, 
and  the  murder  of  infants  frightful.  Christian  mis- 
sions puts  life  in  the  scale  of  values  and  finds  it  of 
supreme  worth.  The  missioner  has  gone  where  canni- 
balism was  openly  practiced  and  has  abolished  it; 
slavery  has  yielded  to  his  persuasion  on  a  hundred 
mission  fields;  infanticide  has  become  a  crime  wherever 
his  hold  has  been  established;  woman  has  been  raised 
from  the  position  of  a  chattel  to  that  of  a  companion 
to  man  in  the  ratio  that  his  message  has  been  adopted, 
and  woman  owes  more  to  the  missionary  than  to  any 
other  active  factor  in  the  world  of  affairs.  Customs 
that  have  been  a  torture  to  the  flesh  and  signs  of  sub- 
servience have  been  abolished,  worship  has  been 
turned  from  the  insanities  of  mutilation  and  ascetic 
denial  to  the  sweet  reasonableness  of  praise  and  prayer 
and  the  help  of  fellow-man. 

Suspicion  is  a  species  of  social  paralysis  in  heathen- 
dom.    Where  there  is  no  fellow-trust  there  can  be  no 

22 


ba 


ft  <* 


M 


INTRODUCTION 

fraternal  bond.  Trade  is  not  conducted  there  in  trust, 
but  in  distrust;  it  is  not  so  much  the  normal  means  of 
building  up  the  economic  life  as  it  is  a  subterfuge  for 
preying  upon  your  kind;  it  is  a  species  of  knavery 
under  a  flag  of  truce,  so  to  speak,  for  it  is  a  battle  of 
wits  and  a  warfare  of  deceit.  Government  is  for  the 
sake  of  those  who  have  the  power  rather  than  for  the 
sake  of  the  governed,  and  "justice  is  sold  for  a  bribe 
and  the  poor  for  a  pair  of  shoes."  Few  men  trust 
their  neighbors,  and  every  man  is  regarded  as  a  rogue. 
The  missioner  establishes  the  virtue  of  fellow-trust 
in  his  convert  and  makes  him  a  man  worthy  of  trust. 
Upon  this  virtue  the  solid  fabric  of  a  better  order  of 
society  is  builded,  and  from  the  ranks  of  the  mission- 
ary's pupils  governments  and  commercial  houses  select 
men  for  their  trustworthy  agents.  The  growth  of  the 
Christian  community  in  the  midst  of  a  native  popula- 
tion strengthens  the  bonds  of  credit  and  proves  by 
degrees  that  honesty  is  the  best  policy.  Administra- 
tion in  the  hands  of  native  Christians  gives  the  sub- 
jects of  law  a  taste  of  integrity  in  government,  and 
raises  the  demand  for  the  same  uprightness  among 
all  officials. 

Certain  philosophers  of  history  once  urged  the 
theory  of  the  hero  as  the  creator  of  progress.  To-day 
we  have  a  revision  of  that  theory  in  favor  of  the  group, 
who  in  the  midst  of  mankind  become  a  leaven  of  new 
ideas  and  better  customs,  and  from  whom  arise  the 
leaders  and  the  teachers  of  a  better  day.  They  think 
out  better  ways  in  an  interchange  of  ideas  and  ex- 
emplify their  ideals  in  their  own  manner  of  living  and 
doing.  This  is  democracy's  revision  of  the  monarchical 

23 


INTRODUCTION 

theory  of  the  hero.  This  is  the  process  of  the  mis- 
sionary evangel  in  its  social  work.  Christian  mis- 
sions create  a  new  manner  of  life  among  groups  of 
natives  and  they  become  a  leaven  in  the  whole  lump, 
illustrating  to  their  fellows  the  benefits  of  the  new  way 
of  living.  From  these  groups  flow  out  streams  of 
influence  that  redeem  the  whole  land  in  the  course 
of  time,  and  bring  multitudes  to  accept  the  creed  of 
civilization. 

To  raise  the  standard  of  life  among  a  people  is 
civilization's  finest  achievement.  It  is  one  of  the  most 
patent  of  the  results  of  the  missionary  propaganda. 
To  add  to  the  life  of  a  whole  nation  by  making  the 
daily  lives  of  all  its  people  somewhat  more  worth  while, 
is,  by  that  much,  to  bring  nearer  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven.  To  level  the  inequalities  even  a  little,  and 
to  bestow  the  gifts  of  mercy,  justice,  and  humility 
upon  the  ideals  of  a  nation,  is  to  do  the  work  of  Him 
who  came  to  make  all  men  brethren.  Christian  mis- 
sions proceed  by  creating  this  man  and  that  a  new 
creature — not  to  save  them  out  of  the  world,  but 
within  it  and  for  its  sake.  They  live  the  new  and 
better  way  and  a  great  multitude  come  to  appreciate 
it.  The  passion  of  fellow-help  is  implanted,  and  each 
does  something  for  the  other.  The  leaven  of  human 
good  is  spread  far  and  wide,  the  spirit  of  social  service 
creates  a  new  and  better  order  of  society,  and  the 
Christ,  thus   lifted  up,  draws  all  men  unto  himself. 

The  figures  that  tell  the  number  of  converts,  in- 
spiring as  they  are,  tell  but  a  part  of  the  story  of  the 
boon  of  good  the  missionary  evangel  carries  unto  the 
uttermost  parts  of  the  earth.     They  are  really  but  an 

24 


INTRODUCTION 

index  to  the  mighty  volume  of  good  the  missionary 
is  doing.  "Teaching  them  to  observe  all  things, 
whatsoever  I  have  commanded  you,"  he  creates  a  new 
order  of  society. 

3.    Christianity   as   the   Universal   Faith. 

All  nations  have  possessed  a  national  religion. 
Old  Roman  statesmen  were  personally  filled  with  con- 
tempt for  the  gods,  but  held  to  them  because  they 
deemed  them  means  of  holding  the  people  in  reverence 
and  an  aid  to  order.  They  did  not  dream  of  a  state 
without  religion.  Modern  Japan  illustrates  the  same 
national  intuition.  Shintoism  is  the  religion  of  pa- 
triotism. The  worship  of  the  emperor  comes  down 
from  primitive  legends  that  trace  the  birth  of  the  dy- 
nasty to  the  gods.  Roman  Christianity  was  thrust 
out  of  Japan  because  it  was  thought  to  be  interfering 
with  the  emperor's  divinity,  and  that  its  fealty  to  the 
pope  would  divide  the  loyalty  of  the  people.  Con- 
fucianism is  Chinese.  It  is  nationalistic  in  its  claim 
to  their  fealty.  The  emperor  is  its  supreme  head. 
It  has  spread  to  other  Mongolians  as  an  ethical  creed, 
but  China  has  exalted  Confucius  to  divine  honors 
and  requires  all  officers  and  all  students  at  govern- 
mental schools  to  pay  him  religious  reverence.  Brah- 
manism  is  Hindu.  It  has  never  spread  beyond  the 
borders  of  India,  and  has  no  desire  to  do  so.  Buddhism 
has  become  largely  Mongolian.  Burmah  and  Ceylon 
are  about  the  only  non-Mongolian  peoples  who  make 
it  their  faith.  It  was  once  a  missionary  faith  and  its 
early  annals  furnish  heroic  examples  of  missionary 
zeal,  but  it  had  not  the  vital  social  power  to  keep  it 

25 


INTRODUCTION 

to  the  task.  Its  contact  with  Christianity  has  aroused 
a  small  revival  among  Japanese  Buddhists,  and  they 
are  adopting  elements  of  the  Christian  gospel  in  an 
effort  to  overcome  its  inroads.  It  to-day  has  fewer 
adherents  than  has  Protestantism,  numbering,  ac- 
cording to  late  authority,  only  184,000,000,  though 
it  has  been  living  2,500  years  amid  great  populations. 
Mohammedanism  is  essentially  Arabic.  It  is  a  mis- 
sionary religion,  but  centers  in  Arabic  nations  and 
among  the  descendants  of  Arabs,  and  has  ever  been 
as  much  political  as  religious.  The  great  Moslem 
population  of  India  is  traceable  to  the  Arabic  invasions 
of  centuries  ago,  and  its  adherents  are  largely  their 
descendants,  mixed,  it  is  true,  with  the  less  virile  Hindu 
blood.     The  same  is  true  of  the  faith  of  China. 

The  missionary  sterility  of  all  these  religions  is  due 
to  a  lack  of  social  force.  A  faith  spreads  in  the  ratio 
that  it  gives  men  an  interest  in  fellow-men,  and  in- 
spires them  with  the  spirit  of  service.  When  a  re- 
ligion is  frankly  nationalistic,  there  is  no  missionary 
appeal.  Unless  it  puts  great  value  upon  life  as  such, 
and  assesses  the  world  in  which  we  live  at  divine  values, 
there  will  be  little  missionary  enthusiasm.  Con- 
fucianism makes  every  man  sufficient  unto  himself. 
It  allows  concubinage,  and  thus  the  degradation  of 
womankind.  Slavery  is  practiced  and  suicide  is  very 
common.  The  criminal  code  of  China  has  ever  been 
barbarous,  and  there  has  never  been  either  universal 
education  or  a  charity  worth  the  name.  The  great 
sage  said,  "Thou  shalt  love  thy  friend  and  ignore  thy 
enemy,"  and  added,  "Have  no  friends  not  your  equal." 
His  version  of  the  golden  rule  made  it  a  negation. 

26 


INTRODUCTION 

The  ethical  code  of  Confucius  is  a  great  gain  over 
that  of  nature  religion  or  of  Hinduism,  but  it  lacks 
the  propulsive  power  of  faith  in  God  and  a  universal 
interest  in  man.  It  ignores  the  Creator  and  teaches 
that  the  less  said  about  him  the  better.  Buddhism 
began  in  benevolence,  but  is  to-day  existing  with  no 
charity  beyond  the  giving  of  small  alms  in  order  to  ac- 
quire merit.  Its  monks  are  lazy  and  generally  ig- 
norant, though  among  them  are  found  some  who  are 
in  earnest  and  seek  the  light.  But  Buddhism  crushes 
desire  as  bad  and  turns  its  true  disciples  from  the  world 
as  from  a  place  of  evil.  It  has  made  little  real  con- 
tribution to  progress,  and  its  hope  for  life  is  that  it 
may  end  in  extinction.  Brahmanism  is  a  caste  re- 
ligion. That  within  itself  is  sufficient  social  condemna- 
tion. Mohammedanism  has  been  the  most  virile  of 
non-Christian  missionary  religions,  but  its  propaganda 
has  been  by  fire  and  sword  and  thus  by  anti-social 
force.  It  teaches  polygamy  and  concubinage,  and 
practices  slavery.  It  makes  of  its  followers  a  superior 
caste  wherever  they  dwell,  and  comes  to  all  other 
faiths  with  fierce  intolerance.  Its  fatalistic  theology 
must  destroy  its  missionary  force  whenever  it  is  sepa- 
rated from  political  aims,  Its  missionary  crusades 
have  ever  been  political  and  never  humanitarian. 

Christianity  is  the  great  universal  religion.  It 
has  been  misused  by  half-converted  adherents  for 
every  end  that  human  desire  might  conceive.  There 
are  yet  those  among  them  who  would  make  it  racial, 
and  deny  that  it  has  any  efficacy  among  others  than 
the  whites.  They  have  accepted  it  from  Asia,  and  from 
alien  hands,  then  deny  that  it  is  fit  for  either  Asia  or 

27 


INTRODUCTION 

aliens.  It  has  proven  what  its  founder  intended  it 
to  be — the  greatest  social  force  in  the  world.  It  pro- 
claimed that  life  was  valuable  for  its  own  sake.  When 
Jesus  asked,  "Of  how  much  more  value  is  a  man  than 
a  sheep?"  he  challenged  the  world's  pagan  view  of  the 
value  of  humanity.  Man  is  never  to  be  considered 
property  nor  made  subservient  to  property  rights. 
When  he  called  the  body  the  temple  of  the  spirit,  he 
laid  a  sacred  value  on  the  flesh  and  taught  none  to 
despise  the  world.  His  call  to  service  was  a  heroic 
demand  for  complete  self-forgetfulness,  not  to  avoid 
the  world  and  its  frictions  and  temptations,  but  to 
grapple  with  evil  boldly  and  valiantly  to  overcome 
it.  When  the  Apostle  Paul  said  there  was  neither 
Jew  nor  Greek,  bond  nor  free,  male  nor  female,  in 
Christ,  he  propounded  the  essential  democracy  of 
Christianity;  in  the  first  he  abolished  all  racial  and 
nationalistic  aversions;  in  the  second  he  condemned 
all  class  distinctions;  in  the  third  he  raised  woman  to  a 
level  with  man  and  destroyed  the  age  long,  universal, 
anti-social,  discrimination  against  her.  Christianity 
is  a  dynamic  of  all  just  action.  The  institutions  of 
civilization  are  its  enginery,  but  its  religion  is  its  dy- 
namic, its  propelling  force.  Gov.  Woodrow  Wilson 
defines  Christianity  as  the  center  of  education,  phi- 
lanthropy, science,  politics,  philosophy,  and,  "in 
short,  the  center  of  all  sentient  and  thinking  life." 
The  manner  in  which  it  makes  good  in  its  mis- 
sionary propaganda  is  twofold ;  it  wins  great  numbers  of 
individuals  and  creates  them  social  factors  for  the  up- 
lift of  their  kind;  and  it  leavens  the  social  and  moral 
life  of  whole  populations  that  it  has  not  yet  won  to 

28 


INTRODUCTION 

membership  in  its  churches.  As  illustration  of  this 
latter,  Japan  furnishes  a  brilliant  example.  A  Japa- 
nese Buddhist,  a  physician,  says,  "Christian  morals 
have  won  in  Japan."  Dr.  Nitobe,  author  of  Bushido, 
says,  "Christianity  alone  is  powerful  enough  to  over- 
come the  materialism  and  utilitarianism  of  Japan." 
A  Japanese  Buddhist  priest  said,  "Christian  ethics 
are  the  best  in  the  world."  A  Buddhist  professor 
of  ethics  says,  "Japan  must  accept  Christian  ethics." 
Professor  Murakami,  Japan's  greatest  Buddhist  scholar, 
acknowledges  the  moral  superiority  of  Christianity. 
Baron  Mayajima  says:  "No  matter  how  large  our 
army  and  our  navy,  if  we  do  not  build  upon  righteous- 
ness we  shall  fail.  The  religion  of  Christ  is  the  one 
most  full  of  strength  for  the  nation  and  for  the  indi- 
vidual." Prince  Ito,  within  the  last  few  years,  said: 
"The  only  true  civilization  rests  on  Christian  prin- 
ciples. The  young  men  who  receive  Christian  educa- 
tion will  be  the  main  factors  in  the  future  development 
of  Japan."  Count  Okuma  said  to  a  body  of  young 
Christians,  "Live  and  preach  this  (the  Christian  life), 
and  you  will  supply  just  what  the  nation  most  needs  at 
this  juncture."  The  Japanese  Minister  of  Education 
recommended  the  New  Testament  as  the  first  book 
for  all  young  men  to  read.  A  volume  of  such  state- 
ments might  be  compiled  from  the  leading  minds  of 
all  lands.  The  religion  of  the  Nazarene  knows  no 
national  lines;  its  principles  are  universal,  they  touch 
all  humanity  where  it  is  at  one,  and  in  time  will  lift 
all  humanity  to  that  oneness  which  will  banish  "man's 
inhumanity  to  man,"  for  "the  spirit  of  Christ  is  the 
spirit  of  Humanity."     It  binds  to  no  dead  past,  as 

29 


INTRODUCTION 

does  Confucianism,  but  builds  solidly  upon  the  past; 
it  forgets  not  the  world  to  find  God,  as  does  Brahman- 
ism,  but  finds  God  in  his  world;  it  loses  not  God  to 
find  the  good  of  mortal  life,  as  does  Buddhism,  but 
gauges  the  good  of  mortal  life  by  his  divine  life;  it  con- 
quers not  by  a  sword  of  blood,  as  does  Mohammedan- 
ism, but  by  the  sword  of  the  Spirit  and  the  bonds  of 
peace.  It  would  make  all  men  brethren,  still  all  hate, 
break  down  all  sectism  and  class  discord,  and  rule 
the  world  through  the  constructive  power  of  a  univer- 
sal love. 

Religion  is  the  mightiest  of  all  forces  resident  in 
humanity.  Men  die  for  their  faith  when  they  would 
for  nothing  else,  and  their  lives  are  controlled  by  it 
against  all  the  powers  of  being.  "Man  is  incurably 
religious,"  said  Paul  Sabbatier.  Spencer  failed  ut- 
terly to  find  the  non-religious  man  his  theories  hy- 
pothecated, and  Ratzel,  in  his  "History  of  Mankind," 
affirms  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  a  non-religious 
human  being.  Even  the  skeptical,  in  their  very 
aversion  to  religion,  display  "incurably  religious" 
interests.  Christianity  rises  to  its  highest  in  its  hold 
upon  the  fealty  of  its  followers.  Moslems  may  die 
in  fanatical  zeal,  but  "the  power  of  the  love  of  Christ 
has  been  displayed  alike  in  the  most  heroic  pages  of 
Christian  martyrdom,  in  the  most  pathetic  pages  of 
Christian  resignation,  in  the  tenderest  pages  of  Chris- 
tian charity,"  says  Lecky.  The  power  of  Christian- 
ity as  a  civilizing  force  is  manifesting  itself  in  these 
latter  days  as  never  before,  because  its  followers  are 
moved  to-day  with  a  better  understanding  of  the 
genius  of  their  faith.     Their  conquest  is  by  the  subtle 

30 


INTRODUCTION 

art  of  persuasion.  That  art  has  ever  been  like  the 
warming  rays  of  the  sunshine  in  its  power  to  fructify 
life.  Like  the  acorn  that  bursts  the  rock,  Christian 
lives  rend  the  Gibraltars  of  heathenism.  .Esop's 
fable  told  how  the  sun  took  the  coat  off  the  traveler's 
back  when  the  violence  of  the  wind  only  made  him 
hold  it  the  more  closely.  "The  Apostle  Paul's  jour- 
neys outrivaled  in  significance  to  civilization  the  con- 
quests of  Alexander  and  Caesar,"  says  Prof.  William 
Ramsey.  "The  missionary  has  done  more  for  the 
Levant  than  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  together," 
said  Gladstone.  "Bulgaria  would  never  have  gained 
her  independence  had  it  not  been  for  Roberts  Col- 
lege," mourned  the  late  Sultan  Abdul  Hamid.  "Not 
England,  but  Jesus  Christ  is  redeeming  India,"  says 
Sir  Andrew  Frasier,  for  thirty  years  an  administrator 
in  India.  "England  has  sent  out  a  tremendous  moral 
force  in  the  life  and  character  of  that  mighty  prophet 
to  conquer  and  hold  this  vast  empire.  None  but 
Jesus,  none  but  Jesus,  ever  deserved  this  bright,  this 
precious  diadem,  and  Jesus  shall  have  it,"  cried  Keshub 
Chunder  Sen,  founder  of  the  Brahmo  Somaj,  in  an 
eloquent  peroration  to  an  address  he  delivered  in  Cal- 
cutta. Religion  is  the  mightiest  social  power  resident 
in  humanity,  and  the  Christian  religion  is  the  mightiest 
power  for  the  constructive  uplift  of  mankind  that  has 
ever  entered  the  world. 


31 


CHAPTER  I 

Things  Figures  Can  Not  Tell 

1.    By  Their  Fruits  Ye  Shall  Know  Them. 

"History  is  no  sphinx."  Wendell  Philipps  asked 
students  of  comparative  civilization  to  allow  China 
to  speak  for  Confucianism,  Japan  for  Buddhism,  India 
for  Brahmanism,  Turkey  for  Mohammedanism,  and 
America  for  Christianity. 

The  final  test  of  a  culture,  a  civilization,  or  a  re- 
ligion is  the  progress  it  creates.  Every  great  religion 
produces  a  civilization,  and  every  civilization  has  a 
religion  at  its  core.  Christianity  creates  personality; 
it  appeals  to  the  individual;  then  it  socializes  him. 
Christian  personality  is  not  measured  in  terms  of 
selfish  self,  but  in  the  terms  of  unselfish  self.  It  vaunts 
not  itself,  is  not  puffed  up,  seeketh  not  its  own.  The 
greatest  personality  is  that  which  most  adequately 
sees  the  viewpoint  of  all  its  fellows  and  most  ardently 
sympathizes  with  all  mankind,  and  then  adds  a  mastery 
of  those  events  that  may  be  ordered  for  the  common 
welfare  of  all. 

"Religion  works  most  fruitfully  through  the  social 
organism,"  said  Dr.  Storrs.  It  makes  good  in  social 
terms.  History  reveals  that  it  is  not  in  material 
things,  but  in  moral  character  and  social  good  that 
civilization    finds    its    guarantee    of    stability.     Good 

3  33 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

becomes  the  "goods"  of  civilization.  Economics  are 
selfish.  Property  rights,  when  made  the  paramount 
consideration,  bias  the  minds  of  men  to  things  rather 
than  to  human  good;  competitor  is  arrayed  against 
competitor,  class  against  class,  and  nation  against 
nation.  Human  welfare  demands  co-operation.  Chris- 
tianity creates  high  social  ideals  and  gives  men  the 
will  to  realize  them.  A  religion  is  powerful  to  the 
extent  that  it  interests  men  in  men,  and  gives  them 
the  working  means  of  advancing  the  welfare  of  their 
kind. 

Christianity  courts  the  tests  of  comparison  as  a 
ministrant  of  social  good  and  an  inspirer  of  social 
progress.  Lowell  defied  the  skeptics  "to  point  to 
any  spot  ten  miles  square,  where  a  decent  man  could 
live  in  decency,  supporting  and  educating  his  children, 
where  age  is  reverenced,  infancy  protected,  manhood  re- 
spected, womanhood  honored,  and  human  life  held 
in  due  regard,  where  the  gospel  of  Christ  has  not  gone 
and  cleared  the  way  and  made  decency  and  society 
respectable."  Frederic  Dennison  Maurice  said,  "Ev- 
ery one  is  sensible  of  a  change  in  the  whole  climate  of 
thought  and  feeling  the  moment  he  crosses  the  boundary 
which  divides  Christianity  from  Heathendom."  Chris- 
tianity alone  is  flexible  enough  to  meet  the  demands 
made  by  human  progress.  It  creates  in  man  a  de- 
sire for  better  things,  and  gives  him  the  open  mind 
and  makes  him  a  "seeker  after  truth,"  promising  that 
in  that  truth  he  shall  find  the  freedom  that  all  souls 
seek.  Not  all  Christians  keep  the  open  mind,  but  they 
do  keep  it  in  just  so  far  as  they  are  Christians.  And 
it  is  not  merely  a  wearing  of  the  name  Christian,  nor 

34 


0 


Id  Examination  Stalls  at  Nankin,  China.     Modern  Civil 

Service  is  now  replacing  the  old-time  examination  in 
Classics. 


A 


Modern  School  on  the  site  of  the  Old  Examination  Stalls 
at  Chentu,  West  China.  This  illustrates  the  New  lira 
in  China. 


THINGS  FIGURES  CAN  NOT  TELL 

the  fact  that  one  has  appropriated  part  of  the  benefits 
of  Christianity  that  gives  the  world  a  helper.  Open- 
mindedness  and  truth  seeking  are  necessary  conditions 
of  Christian  progress. 

Paganism  is  static;  its  Golden  Ages  are  in  the  past. 
Christianity  puts  its  Golden  Age  in  the  future.  The 
Kingdom  of  God  has  not  yet  reached  its  consummation, 
it  is  to  come.  Pagan  religions  give  men  the  backward 
look.  Christianity  gives  them  the  forward  look. 
Men  are  optimistic  because  they  believe  their  age 
has  made  progress  over  previous  ages.  Paganism  is 
pessimistic  because  it  believes  the  present  is  worse 
than  the  past,  and  therefore  the  future  will  perhaps 
be  yet  worse.  Paganism  hopes  to  escape  this  world, 
to  retire  into  oblivion,  or  to  be  rescued  into  a  better 
place.  Some  Christians  have  adulterated  their  re- 
ligious doctrines  with  these  ideas,  but  at  the  heart  of 
Christendom  has  ever  been  found  a  saving  faith  in  the 
promises  of  Scripture  for  a  "new  heaven  and  new 
earth." 

China  is  the  answer  to  Confucianism.  Confucius 
pretended  to  give  nothing  new;  he  pointed  back  to  the 
sages  that  were  old,  even  in  his  time.  He  gave  China 
the  finest  ethical  code  found  outside  the  Christian 
Scriptures.  But  the  Celestial  Empire  has  made  no 
progress  in  a  millennium.  Hers  has  been  the  back- 
ward look.  She  worships  her  ancestors.  All  things 
were  done  as  the  fathers  did  them.  The  ethical  code 
of  Confucius's  five  relations  lifted  her  as  high  as  eth- 
ical precept  could  lift  a  great  people.  Then,  notwith- 
standing the  fact  that  the  Chinese  are  among  the  most 
virile,    industrious,    intellectual,    and    peaceable    of 

35 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

peoples,  China  crystalized  and  progress  ceased.  The 
ethics  of  Confucius  is  negative.  It  lacks  a  propulsive 
power  for  social  good.  Confucianism  solidifies,  Chris- 
tianity fructifies. 

Japan  is  the  answer  to  Buddhism.  The  religion  of 
Gautama  is  the  most  spiritual  outside  of  Christianity. 
The  great  Buddha  was  himself  one  of  the  first  of 
saints.  Yet  to-day  Buddhism  is  represented  by  a 
priesthood  whose  character  is,  to  say  the  least,  not 
synonymous  with  charity  or  virtue,  and  with  a  worship 
that  does  not  imply  any  fundamental  social  obligation. 
Christianity  has  brought  more  progress  to  Japan  in 
fifty  years  than  Buddhism  brought  in  five  hundred 
years.  "Buddhism  is  a  personal  philosophy  rather 
than  a  social  power,"  says  Dr.  Carver.  Japan's 
social  life  remained  licentious,  her  daughters  were  sold 
into  shame,  woman  was  not  a  companion  to  her  hus- 
band, and  despotism  ruled  in  all  her  life,  from  the 
family  to  the  throne.  It  was  not  until  Christian 
ideals  entered  Japan  and  she  opened  her  eyes  to  the 
arts  and  powers  of  Christian  progress,  that  she  threw 
off  the  provincial  customs  of  ages  and  entered  the  list 
of  modern  nations. 

India  is  the  answer  to  Brahmanism.  A  Greek 
traveler  and  historian  of  twenty-five  hundred  years 
ago  draws  a  picture  of  Hindu  social  life  that  agrees 
with  their  own  traditions  of  better  days  in  the  past. 
According  to  his  account  there  was  then  no  caste, 
and  the  customs  were  less  cruel  than  they  were  when 
the  first  missionaries  arrived,  two  centuries  ago. 
Buddhism  came  before  that  ancient  date  and  sought 
to  lift  India  out  of  a  semi -animistic  faith  to  a  higher 

36 


THINGS  FIGURES  CAN  NOT  TELL 

realm  of  philosophy  and  of  religious  meditation.  But 
Brahmanism  overcame  the  purer  teaching,  and  there 
is  every  evidence  that  it  has  been  a  degenerating, 
rather  than  a  regenerating  religion.  Caste  paralyzes 
all  power  for  social  progress,  because  there  can  be  no 
real  progress  without  the  enlarging  of  democratic 
ideals  and  the  realization  of  a  larger  amount  of  social 
equality.  Woman  is  in  a  more  abject  state  in  India 
than  in  any  land  outside  of  savagery.  Their  worship 
is  conducted  with  debasing  practices  and  through 
forms  that  testify  to  degeneracy  of  ideals.  India  has 
kept  no  annals  except  such  as  her  religious  tradi- 
tions have  preserved.  Her  dominating  religion,  which 
should  have  been  her  social  force,  has  been  more  nearly 
anti-social.  Instead  of  uniting  the  nation,  it  has  tended 
to  disintegrate  it.  It  has  had  no  positive  evangel. 
It  has  been  eclectic,  and  adopted  and  absorbed  and 
then  debased  almost  every  better  religion  or  philosophy 
proposed  in  that  benighted  land.  If  it  was  said  of 
China  that  she  was  not  a  country  but  a  race,  it  could 
be  said  of  India  that  she  was  not  even  a  race,  but  a 
heterogenous  collection  of  peoples,  fenced  in  by  the 
giant  Himalayas,  curiously  cultivating  at  one  extreme 
a  speculative  metaphysic,  and  at  the  other  slowly 
losing  vitality  through  anti-social  customs. 

Turkey  is  the  answer  to  Mohammedanism.  The 
faith  of  Islam  was  created  out  of  a  degenerate  Judaism 
and  some  stray  snatches  of  early  Christianity,  and 
then  adapted  to  the  life  of  Arabs.  It  took  on  the 
military  spirit  and  became  missionary  through  desire 
of  conquest.  It  has  a  legalistic  moral  code,  a  sensual 
promise  for  the  hereafter,  a  strong,  prejudicial  sect 

37 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

spirit,  and  an  unelastic  social  ideal.  It  has  no  caste, 
but  it  is  a  caste  within  itself.  Its  legalism  prevents 
it  becoming  a  leaven  for  moral  welfare,  for  legalism 
does  not  have  power  to  create  real  character,  not  even 
a  Christian  legalism.  It  is  fatalistic,  and  therefore 
deprived  of  the  dynamics  of  progress,  even  though 
it  had  the  moral  power  that  high  principles  would  give. 
The  answer  of  history  to  Moslemism  is  the  contradic- 
tion of  a  medieval  nation  in  close  contact  with  the 
world  currents  of  progress,  and  yet  denying  ingress 
to  their  fructifying  tides.  Turkey  is  to-day  ap- 
parently turning  to  modern  ways,  but  she  is  doing 
so  at  the  cost  of  her  historic  religious  position.  The 
Sheik-ul-Islam  is  repealing  her  sacred  traditions  and 
denuding  her  of  her  battle-cries,  and  proclaiming  the 
hated  "infidel"  and  "Christian  dog"  a  brother.  The 
young  Turks  are  men  who  received  their  education 
in  a  Christian  atmosphere.  Christian  missions  set 
the  models  for  Turkey's  proposed  school  system,  and 
cultivated  the  minds  of  so  many  of  the  youth  that 
when  rebellion  broke  over  the  ramparts  of  tyranny 
there  were  none  to  defend  the  old  regime,  and  the  land 
was  leavened  with  enough  of  a  citizenship  to  make 
a  modern  government  an  immediate  and  practicable 
reality.  Islam  created  no  school  system,  but  it  did 
create  a  harem.  It  brought  no  gospel  of  peace,  but 
boldly  practiced  one  of  conversion  or  extermination. 
It  did  not  open,  but  defiantly  closed  and  prejudiced 
minds.  It  plead  a  form  of  equality  for  the  "faithful" 
and  thus  improved  Hinduism,  but  it  plead  for  in- 
tolerance toward  all  not  of  its  creed,  and  it  evolved 
no  system  of  benevolence,   founded   no  real   homes, 

38 


THINGS  FIGURES  CAN  NOT  TELL 

instilled  no  ideals  of  justice  or  mercy  or  a  humble 
walk  with  God.  Its  social  power  is  not  more  than 
equal  to  its  inculcation  of  those  practices  which  Chris- 
tianity teaches,  and  its  denial  of  progress  is  to  be  dis- 
covered in  these  anti-social  principles,  through  the 
practice  of  which  it  fails  to  reach  up  to  the  lofty  ideals 
of  Christianity. 

The  world  to  which  Jesus  came  was  no  more  moral, 
democratic,  human,  or  charitable  than  is  that  to  which 
his  gospel  is  carried  to-day  by  the  missionary.  How 
do  we  account  for  the  difference  between  that  world 
and  the  one  which  professes  Christianity  to-day? 
Christian  civilization  alone,  among  the  civilizations 
of  the  world,  has  made  great  progress  and  seems  to 
be  even  yet  only  in  the  childhood  of  its  growth.  It  is 
not  yet  perfected,  but  its  glory  is  that  it  is  ever  going 
on  toward  perfection.  A  thing  is  to  be  judged,  not 
by  its  immature  attainments,  but  by  the  promise  it 
gives  of  fruitage  and  by  the  fruit  it  has  already  borne. 
There  are  many  good  things  in  the  pagan  world  and 
there  are  many  bad  in  Christendom,  but  the  com- 
parison is  not  in  a  confusing  process  of  selecting  the 
best  and  the  worst,  but  in  an  averaging  of  the  totals. 

Our  modern  Christian  civilization  testifies  elo- 
quently to  the  success  of  Christianity  as  a  civilizer. 
Our  forefathers  had  been  barbarians  from  time  im- 
memorial until  Christianity  was  brought  to  them. 
From  that  time  the  evolution  of  modern  Anglo-Saxon 
and  Teutonic  civilization  began.  To  challenge  the 
missionary  is  to  deny  the  very  courses  of  history. 
We  have  not  yet  purged  ourselves  of  all  our  pagan 
heritage.     We  have  a  great  deal  of  baptized  paganism 

39 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

in  our  churches.  There  is  a  great  deal  of  counterfeit 
afloat,  but  its  existence  only  evidences  the  value  of 
the  genuine.  Christianity  alone,  among  the  great 
religions,  has  created  benevolence  and  brotherly 
love  and  impressed  them  upon  whole  nations  as  ideals 
of  life.  It  alone  has  created  that  type  of  personality 
which  expresses  itself  in  fellow-service.  It  alone  ex- 
presses sacrifice  in  social  terms,  and  makes  religion 
a  thing  of  service  to  fellow-man.  It  stands  the  test 
of  the  "average  good." 

2.    The  Story  of  the  Figures. 

Statistics  are  usually  considered  dry,  but  let  it 
be  a  column  of  digits  that  sums  up  our  profits  or  tells 
the  totals  of  a  fortune  that  has  come  to  us,  and  we 
are  aroused  to  a  feverish  enthusiasm.  Figures  that 
indicate  a  remarkable  missionary  advance  ought  to 
be  very  interesting  to  Christians,  because  they  tell 
of  new  recruits  to  the  cause,  and  much  more,  they 
tell  of  conquests  that  mean  permanent  territory  added 
to  Christian  lands,  and  are  eloquent  with  the  romance 
of  missionary  adventure  and  the  tragedy  of  mission- 
ary sacrifice. 

There  are  a  few  critics  yet  that  scoff  at  the  mission- 
ary enterprise,  but  their  ignorance  is  so  coming  to 
shame  them  that  their  dolorous  and  caustic  voices 
are  not  often  heard.  No  one  but  an  intellectual 
provincial,  a  moral  agnostic,  a  medieval  race-hater, 
or  a  dogmatic  religious  quack  could  be  cynical  about 
an  enterprise  that  brings  so  much  of  human  good  and 
shows  such  an  amazing  success  as  does  the  missionary 
enterprise.     Every  present-day  Christian  people  have 

40 


THINGS  FIGURES  CAN  NOT  TELL 

abandoned  an  ethnic  faith  to  accept  Christianity, 
and  the  marvelous  success  of  this  first  century  of 
modern  missionary  activity  gives  assurance  that  every 
people  with  an  ethnic  faith  will  ultimately  abandon 
it  in  favor  of  Christianity.  It  was  a  Jew  that  brought 
the  gospel  to  Rome,  a  Roman  that  took  it  to  France, 
a  Frenchman  that  took  it  to  Scandinavia,  a  Scotchman 
that  evangelized  Ireland,  and  an  Irishman  that,  in 
turn,  made  the  missionary  conquest  of  Scotland.  No 
people  have  received  Christianity  except  at  the  hands 
of  an  alien,  and  it  is  at  the  hands  of  aliens  who  have 
been  bereft  of  provincial  conceit  and  filled  with  Christ- 
like confidence  in  men,  without  regard  to  race,  color, 
or  kind,  that  it  is  being  taken  to  practically  every 
land  under  the  sun  to-day.  There  is  a  patriotism 
of  the  Kingdom  of  God,  and  a  fealty  to  the  interests 
of  humanity  that  makes  a  man  none  the  less  loyal  to 
his  own  people,  but  fills  him  with  a  larger  love  for  all 
the  world. 

The  first  million  converts  of  the  modern  mission- 
ary era  were  won  in  one  hundred  years;  the  second 
million  were  added  in  twelve  years,  and  the  next  mil- 
lion will  be  gained  in  six  years.  In  China  it  took 
thirty-five  years  to  win  the  first  six,  and  at  the  end  of 
fifty  years  there  were  less  than  a  thousand  who  pro- 
fessed evangelical  Christianity  in  that  hoary  old  land; 
but  at  the  end  of  the  second  half-century  there  are 
a  round  quarter-million  in  the  Protestant  Christian 
community  there,  and  the  numbers  have  increased 
sevenfold  in  two  decades.  -  In  India  the  increase  has 
been  even  more  gratifying.  In  the  first  of  three  de- 
cades it  was  53%,  in  the  second  61%,  and  in  the  third 

4J 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

86%.  Twenty-five  years  ago  Korea  was  closed  land, 
but  to-day  there  are  more  than  200,000  who  are  either 
already  baptized  or  are  under  instruction  in  prepara- 
tion for  that  culminative  act  of  Christian  allegiance, 
and  the  numbers  are  increasing  at  the  rate  of  30% 
annually.  Livingstone  found  Africa  a  "Dark  Conti- 
nent," but  to-day  the  lights  of  a  million  lives  shine 
around  its  shores  and  pierce  into  its  interior.  Whole 
nations,  like  Uganda,  have  been  won  from  barbarism. 
In  the  South  Seas  the  first  band  of  heroic  English 
missionaries  were  driven  off  the  island  of  Tahiti  only 
a  little  over  a  century  ago.  Up  to  the  present  that 
single  little  Christian  island  has  sent  160  missionaries 
to  the  islands  around  about,  and  whole  groups,  like 
the  Figis,  have  been  Christianized.  Uganda  and  the 
Figis,  two  of  the  darkest  spots  that  civilization  has 
ever  entered,  are  to-day  said  to  provide  the  largest 
percentage  of  regular  church  goers  of  any  places  in 
Christendom,  and  to  be  among  the  most  peaceful 
lands  known.  In  South  India,  the  oldest  of  modern 
Protestant  mission  fields,  and  in  one  of  the  most  diffi- 
cult countries,  the  cumulative  effects  of  the  work  is 
telling  mightily,  and  gives  promise  of  a  greatly  ac- 
celerated increase  in  numbers  as  the  evangel  attains  the 
momentum  brought  by  further  years  of  success.  The 
United  South  India  Church  alone  numbers  nearly  a 
quarter-million  members,  while  in  all  South  India 
there  are  a  half-million  communicants  in  the  church, 
and  half  as  many  more  belong  to  the  Christian  com- 
munity about  the  churches;  in  three  years  one  Presby- 
terian mission  has  received  no  less  than  3,000  converts. 
In  Japan  the  numerical  advance  has  been  slower,  but 

42 


THINGS  FIGURES  CAN  NOT  TELL 

the  moral  success  has  been  out  of  all  proportions  to 
the  numerical  increase  of  the  churches;  there  are  only 
70,000  Protestant  church  members,  but  they  are  in- 
creasing at  the  rate  of  10%  per  annum.  They  are  of 
the  more  potential  classes,  and  exercise  an  influence 
in  society  and  in  the  state  out  of  all  proportion  to  their 
numbers.  It  is  claimed  that  a  million  of  the  educated 
youth  of  Japan  hold  the  New  Testament  as  the  one 
authoritative  ethical  code,  and  order  their  lives  by  it 
quite  as  well  as  a  like  number  that  might  be  se- 
lected from  our  churches  at  home.  There  is  on  the 
foreign  field  to-day  a  Christian  community  of  more 
than  5,000,000  souls,  about  one-half  of  whom  have 
been  received  into  active  membership  of  the  churches. 
Ten  years  ago  there  were  but  3,500,000,  and  fifteen 
years  ago  less  than  3,000,000.  At  the  present  rate 
of  increase  there  will  be  another  million  inside  the  next 
six  years,  and  many  now  living  will  have  their  eyes 
gladdened  by  the  sight  of  a  million  per  year  being 
added  to  the  Christian  host  that  is  so  rapidly  arising 
in  the  regions  beyond  the  seas. 

But,  gratifying  as  the  evangelistic  statistics  are, 
they  do  not  tell  all  the  story.  Multitudes  receive 
of  the  good  the  missionary  offers  that  do  not  openly 
profess  the  creed  he  takes.  There  are  10,000  mission- 
ary homes,  every  one  of  which  is  a  neighborhood 
center,  doing,  in  a  way,  the  work  of  a  social  settle- 
ment. There  are  160  mission  presses  upon  which 
there  are  printed  500  periodicals,  besides  tracts  in- 
numerable and  thousands  of  books.  Through  the 
diffusion  of  literature,  knowledge  on  every  theme 
that  forms  a  part  of  modern  knowledge  is  disseminated. 

43 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

Missionaries  translate  books  of  science,  history,  po- 
litical economy,  sociology,  and  law.  They  acquaint 
the  backward  nations  with  the  progress  of  civilization, 
and  put  in  their  hands  the  knowledge  and  art  essential 
to  attain  it  for  themselves.  They  conduct  25,000 
schools  and  in  them  instruct  more  than  1,500,000 
pupils.  The  instruction  reaches  from  the  kinder- 
garten to  the  university  and  technical  instruction. 
Through  them  they  create  a  citizenship.  In  Japan 
the  Doshisha  alone  has  trained  6,000  native  leaders 
for  all  walks  of  life.  In  Turkey  instruction  has  been 
given  to  upwards  of  40,000  annually,  and  when  the 
new  era  came  in  a  day  there  was  a  vast  leaven  of  citizen- 
ship, instructed  in  modern  learning,  to  hail  the  day 
with  joy  and  to  guide  the  uninstructed  by  the  way 
of  peace  into  better  things.  The  missionary  school 
became  the  harbinger  of  all  the  instruction  modern 
India  possesses,  and  set  the  model  for  both  China  and 
Japan.  In  the  mission  hospitals  and  dispensaries 
millions  receive  balm  for  their  wounds  and  healing 
for  their  diseases,  and,  in  the  course  of  time,  will 
bring  to  each  nation  a  native  medical  profession, 
competent  to  care  for  its  own  ailments.  A  native 
ministry  is  being  trained,  and  the  mission  church  is 
more  and  more  relying  upon  it.  When  there  is  a  com- 
petent native  leadership  for  the  churches,  there  will 
be  an  advance  such  as  no  foreign  leadership  can  ever 
hope  to  bring,  for  the  people  of  every  tongue  listen 
most  readily  and  follow  most  confidently  their  own 
leaders.  An  old  society,  like  the  London  Missionary 
Society,  illustrates  the  trend  in  this  matter.  With  an 
income  of  a  million  a  year,  they  employ  but  295  mis- 

44 


THINGS  FIGURES  CAN  NOT  TELL 

sionaries,  and  have  a  staff  of  native  workers  number- 
ing 4,000  under  their  supervision.  Their  fields  were 
among  the  first  opened,  and  have  been  cultivated  long 
enough  to  develop  a  native  leadership.  The  Chris- 
tian communities  under  their  care  number  400,000 
souls,  and  their  statesmanlike  policy  is  an  example 
to  all  younger  mission  boards.  In  the  older  South 
India  fields  there  are  900  missionaries  and  14,000 
native  workers.  Quite  as  promising  as  the  develop- 
ment of  a  native  leadership  for  the  mission  churches 
is  the  rapid  increase  in  self-support.  To  make  com- 
parison between  the  giving  of  mission  churches  and 
those  at  home,  the  basis  must  be  not  that  of  dollar 
with  dollar,  but  that  of  earning  capacity  and  the  scale 
of  wages.  The  70,000  Christians  in  Japan  gave 
$150,000  last  year,  and  wages  in  Japan  are  but  a  frac- 
tion of  what  they  are  in  the  United  States.  A  most 
conservative  estimate  would  make  that  sum  worth 
a  million  dollars  in  American  earning  power.  The 
Korean  churches  pay  90%  of  their  native  ministry 
and  build  practically  all  their  own  chapels  and  school 
houses.  The  Ceylonese  Christians  give  an  average 
of  36  days'  wages  out  of  each  year  for  each  member. 
The  Congregationalists  are  among  the  most  liberal 
givers  at  home,  their  giving  being  50%  higher  than 
the  average  for  the  home  churches,  and  they  give  only 
an  average  of  eight  or  nine  days'  wages  apiece  per  year 
to  all  the  work  of  the  church,  or  one-fourth  what  the 
Ceylonese  give.  The  African  converts  in  the  Bolenge 
field,  on  the  Congo,  give  one-tenth  of  their  income 
as  a  minimum  and  add  to  it  one-tenth  of  their  mem- 
bership   as    evangelists.     In    China    the    membership 

45 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

has  increased  eleven  times  in  thirty  years,  and  the 
ratio  of  native  giving  has  increased  thirty  times.  The 
Telugus  and  Tamils  of  South  India  earn  from  eight 
to  twelve  cents  per  day  and  give  $120,000  per  annum. 
In  1900  the  native  churches  on  all  mission  fields  gave 
$1,833,961.  In  1910  they  gave  $5,249,405.  Their 
contributions  were  trebled  in  a  decade.  In  the  same 
decade  the  home  churches  increased  their  missionary 
gifts  by  80%,  or  a  little  more  than  one-fourth  as  rapidly 
as  the  mission  churches.  The  mission  churches  are 
missionary  to  the  last  degree.  They  are  not  smitten 
with  the  smug  and  selfish  and  wholly  perverted  idea 
that  the  gospel  is  for  them,  or  that  there  is  any  pe- 
culiarity of  kind  that  makes  them  its  beneficiaries, 
and  rules  out  others  as  unfit  or  undeserving  or  as  suf- 
ficient unto  themselves.  It  is  sheer  atheism  to  talk 
about  Christianity  for  the  West,  and  contend  that 
each  people  evolves  the  religion  that  is  best  for  it. 
The  West  did  not  evolve  Christianity;  it  received  it 
at  the  hand  of  missionaries  from  the  East. 

The  figures  that  tell  of  the  awakened  interest  of 
the  church  at  home  are  also  inspiring.  The  Protestant 
Reformation  began  with  an  avowed  hostility  to  mis- 
sionary work.  It  has  been  only  a  century  and  a  half 
since  the  first  beacon  light  was  sent  to  a  foreign  field, 
and  for  the  first  one  hundred  years  little  was  done. 
We  are  now  at  the  dawn  of  the  missionary  era.  The 
church  is  awakened  at  last,  and  the  interest  of  the 
past  decade  is  eloquent  with  prophecy  for  the  future. 
The  total  support  has  grown  from  $17,315,526  in 
1900,  to  $32,139,509  in  1910,  or  an  increase  of  almost 
100%.     The  Laymen's  Missionary  Movement  is  es- 

46 


THINGS  FIGURES  CAN  NOT  TELL 

sentially  a  pocket-book  movement;  it  is  an  awakening 
of  incomes  to  a  responsibility  of  stewardship.  The 
class  that  holds  the  purse  strings  are  discovering  in 
the  mission  fields  spheres  for  investment  that  pay 
as  do  no  others.  The  campaign  was  inaugurated  in 
Toronto  in  1908;  that  city's  gift  increased  from  $175,- 
000  to  $363,000  the  first  year,  and  went  up  to  $411,000 
the  second.  It  is  a  fair  index  of  the  generosity  the 
Movement  is  to  bring,  it  means  the  most  adequate 
financing  of  opportunities  offered  in  the  field  that 
has  ever  been  realized.  The  number  of  missionaries 
has  increased  by  one-third  in  the  decade,  and  the 
number  of  employed  native  workers  by  one-half. 
The  missionary  host  is  increasing  at  the  rate  of  3% 
per  annum,  but  the  opportunities  are  increasing  at 
double  that  ratio.  In  the  past  four  years  the  Student 
Volunteer  Movement  has  furnished  1,275  new  mis- 
sioners,  and  has  some  6,000  recruits  preparing  in  the 
various  colleges  for  future  enlistment.  Their  in- 
crease over  the  past  quadrennium  was  27%,  and  was 
64%  over  the  one  before  the  last.  The  church  at 
home  is  awakening,  but  she  is  yet  bestowing  $12  per 
member  upon  herself  each  year,  while  sending  only 
40  cents  to  the  mission  field.  She  supports  one  minis- 
ter for  every  140  members  at  home,  and  wastes  vast 
sums  upon  denominational  enterprises  that  duplicate 
the  Christian  efforts  of  sister  churches.  She  supports 
an  ordained  worker  for  every  400  people  in  the  home 
field,  and  supplies  one  for  every  200,000  in  the  lands 
that  have  no  churches,  schools,  books,  hospitals,  or 
Christian  homes,  nor  the  mighty  influence  of  Chris- 
tian civilization.     To-day  there  are  on  the  field  21,248 

47 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

missionaries  and  91,513  native  helpers,  or  a  total  mis- 
sionary host  of  113,207;  ten  years  ago  there  were  91,899. 
To-day  there  are  45,540  places  of  work;  ten  years 
ago  there  were  28,135.  If  the  whole  church  could  be 
endued  with  the  spirit  of  the  Moravians,  the  task 
would  be  undertaken  in  a  manner  that  would  need 
no  apologies.  This  little  denomination  of  30,000 
Christians  is  to-day  supporting  over  400  missionaries, 
or  one  to  every  68  members.  The  entire  American 
church  supports  but  one  missionary  to  every  2,500 
church  members.  The  Moravians  are  giving  $400,000 
annually  to  support  their  mission  churches,  or  $13 
per  caput  for  their  membership.  If  all  the  churches 
did  as  well,  the  world  would  be  evangelized  in  this 
generation.  They  have  been  the  pioneers  in  most 
of  the  fields  and  have  often  turned  over  established 
stations  to  those  who  came  after  them.  They  have 
100,000  gathered  into  their  mission  churches,  and 
are  pushing  forward  into  unoccupied  fields  with  true 
Apostolic  zeal. 

Here  in  the  brilliantly  illuminated  civilization  of 
a  Christian  land  we  are  asking  the  men  on  the  out- 
posts, "Watchmen,  what  of  the  night?"  Truly  does 
the  answer  echo,  "The  morning  cometh."  Never 
since  the  dawn  of  civilization  have  the  signs  of  its 
coming  given  such  assurance.  But  figures  do  not 
adequately  tell  the  story;  they  are  but  indexes  to  the 
larger  volume  of  missionary  accomplishment.  Where 
thousands  accept  the  definite  evangel  of  the  missioner, 
tens  of  thousands  receive  the  benefits  of  his  new  truth 
and  the  better  way  of  life.  While  a  native  church 
is  being  established,  a  whole  nation  is  being  leavened 

48 


THINGS  FIGURES  CAN  NOT  TELL 

with  a  higher  ideal  and  the  old  is  giving  way  to  the 
new.  The  missionary  is  the  pioneer  of  a  new  epoch  in 
the  life  of  every  people  to  whom  he  goes.  In  the  West 
we  are  not  all  Christians,  but  we  all  live  in  Christian 
lands.  So  in  the  East,  and  in  the  savage  lands,  the 
missionary  is  bringing  that  social  uplift  that  trans- 
forms custom  and  elevates  whole  nations  and  changes 
the  face  of  the  earth. 

3.    The  Leaven  in  the  Lump. 

Christianity  is  taking  the  world  "because  it  meets 
and  supplies  the  deepest  wants  of  men  more  perfectly 
than  any  other  religion  meets  and  supplies  them," 
says  Dr.  Gladden.  It  is  not  claimed  that  Christ  is 
the  sole  cause  of  progress,  but  that  in  his  gospel  and 
life  are  the  most  powerful  factors  that  make  for  prog- 
ress. John  Fiske  said  that  "religion  is  the  largest 
and  most  ubiquitous  fact  connected  with  the  existence 
of  mankind  upon  the  earth."  "Pagan  religion  stopped 
the  hand  and  neglected  the  heart,"  said  Montesquiue. 
The  Christian  religion  begins  with  the  heart,  and, 
placing  there  the  motive  power  of  action,  sets  the  hand 
to  every  task  that  will  redound  to  human  welfare. 
Other  systems  may  give  ethical  codes,  but  they  bind 
them  about  the  minds  of  men  with  a  restricting  literal- 
ism, while  Christianity  plants  the  seeds  of  principle 
in  the  hearts  of  men  and  leaves  life  to  develop  according 
to  any  variation  that  race,  clime,  or  custom  may  de- 
mand. Judaism  and  Confucianism  gave  the  Golden 
Rule  negatively;  they  asked  men  to  refrain  from  evil. 
But  Christ  gave  it  positively;  he  asked  men  to  prosecute 
the  doing  of  good.     Between  the  two  modes  of  action 

4  49 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

there  is  a  continent  of  indifference.  The  one  does 
no  harm  for  self's  sake;  the  other  does  good  for  other's 
sake. 

Emerson  said  that  the  character  of  people  was  de- 
termined by  their  conception  of  God.  Buddhism 
worships  the  perfected  man.  Gautauma  taught  that 
there  was  nothing  better  to  worship.  He  spent  his 
life  thinking  through  the  problems  of  suffering  and 
death.  He  forsook  wife  and  child  to  lead  an  ascetic 
life,  and  to  find  the  way  of  escape  from  the  miseries 
of  existence.  His  disciples  practice  charity  for  merit's 
sake,  but  the  world  is  not  good  and  God  is  not  in- 
terested in  a  perfected  social  relationship.  The  end 
of  the  best  life  is  either  absorption  of  one's  personality 
into  Nirvana,  or  complete  oblivion.  Self-annihila- 
tion is  not  a  social  ideal.  The  extinction  of  desire  is 
the  supreme  moral  end  of  life  to  the  faithful  Buddhist. 

Confucius  taught  that  men  should  "respect  the 
gods,  but  let  them  alone."  Confucianism  really  has 
no  personal  God.  Its  disciples  leave  the  worship 
of  "Shangte"  to  the  emperor.  Most  of  them  accept 
the  spirit  worship  of  Taoism  and  make  obiesence  to 
the  tablets  of  their  ancestors.  Man  has  a  duty  to 
fellow-man,  but  it  does  not  hinge  upon  his  conception 
of  God,  and  therefore  lacks  the  moral  sanction  that 
Christian  theism  gives.  Brahmanism  has  many  gods. 
It  boasts  of  a  pantheon  of  330,000,000  divinities.  Its 
great  deities  are  anything  but  moral  examples.  They 
are  really  incarnations  of  human  desires;  in  them  is 
found  the  entire  gamut  of  human  passions.  Salvation 
is  not  through  fellow-help  nor  love  of  one's  kind.  Their 
best  sacred  book,  the  Bhagavad  Gita,  teaches  that 

50 


THINGS  FIGURES  CAN  NOT  TELL 

even  the  evil  person  who  worships  correctly  is  deemed 
good.  This  illustrates  the  morals  of  the  system. 
Mohammedanism  teaches  there  is  "one  God  and  Mo- 
hammed is  his  prophet."  It  is  not  only  monotheistic, 
it  is  iconoclastic.  The  future  is  fixed;  law  is  supreme; 
none  but  Moslems  can  be  saved.  Mercy  is  not  a 
tenet  of  Islamism.  "After  twelve  centuries  the  Arabs 
are  a  nation  of  robbers,"  says  Professor  Marshall.  It 
is  no  part  of  man  to  create  a  better  order,  God  has 
fixed  everything  from  the  beginning. 

None  of  these  religions  teach  any  such  thing  as  a 
Kingdom  of  God.  That  which  is  the  social  inspiration 
and  goal  of  Christianity  is  either  denied  or  omitted 
by  all  of  them.  Their  gods  are  either  aloof,  or  non- 
existent, or  implacable,  or  else  they  are  interested  only 
in  a  personal  salvation.  The  world  is  either  totally 
bad,  is  growing  worse,  or  is  a  "wheel"  upon  which 
man  is  broken.  It  is  never  conceived  of  as  a  place 
into  which  "the  heavens  shall  descend,"  and  there 
"shall  be  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth."  "One  who 
has  not  examined  the  other  religions  can  not  know  what 
Christianity  really  is,"  said  Max  Miiller.  Christian- 
ity is  "the  social  hope  of  the  nations,"  as  Dr.  Dennis 
demonstrates  in  his  monumental  work  entitled,  "Chris- 
tian Missions  and  Social  Progress." 

If,  as  Fichte  said,  religion  "seeks  the  realization  of 
universal  reason,"  may  we  not  say  that  its  end  is  the 
highest  good  of  all?  Benjamin  Kidd,  in  his  "Social 
Evolution,"  defines  the  scope  of  religion  as  being  the 
subordination  of  the  personal  interests  of  the  indi- 
vidual to  the  social  organism,  and  says  each  type  of 
civilization  receives  its  characteristics  from  the  ethical 

51 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

system  implanted  in  it.  According  to  his  interpreta- 
tion of  history,  not  economics,  nor  politics,  nor  racial 
types,  nor  any  other  single  thing  determines  the  evo- 
lution of  progress,  but  amid  them  all  religion  is  the 
most  powerful  factor.  It  strikes  deepest  into  human 
motives,  and  though  it  be  inscrutable  to  those  who 
profess  it,  it  nevertheless  furnishes  the  chief  sanctions 
for  action. 

Christianity  is  neither  a  system  of  doctrine  nor 
of  morals,  though  it  furnishes  the  world  with  both. 
Its  dynamic  is  in  a  person.  Christ  said  he  was  "the 
way,  the  truth,  and  the  life,"  and  "I  came  to  bring 
life  and  bring  it  more  abundantly."  He  asked  the 
world  to  learn  of  him,  but  it  was  not  in  knowledge, 
but  in  doing  that  it  was  to  find  life.  Christ  exists 
to-day  in  millions  of  hearts,  not  merely  as  a  philosopher 
or  a  lawgiver  nor  even  as  a  saint,  but  as  a  friend  and 
helper,  the  most  vital  reality  in  experience.  No  other 
religion  offers  the  dynamic  of  such  a  personality. 
"Social  efficiency  rests  upon  qualities  of  character." 
If,  as  Kidd  says,  "the  one  essential"  is  supernatural 
sanction  of  some  kind  for  acts  and  observances  which 
have  a  social  significance,  then  Christianity's  secret 
as  the  greatest  social  leaven  in  the  lump  of  the  world 
is  explained  by  the  character  of  its  founder  and  the 
mystery  of  his  abiding  presence  in  the  hearts  of  his 
followers.  His  was  "the  mightiest  heart  that  ever 
beat — stirred  by  the  Spirit  of  God;  how  it  wrought  in 
his  bosom,"  said  Theodore  Parker.  In  his  life  men 
find  that  ideal  which  the  minds  of  the  greatest  have 
ever  sought  in  vain  in  their  visions.  In  his  promises 
they  discover  principles  of  action  that  "decide  ques- 

52 


THINGS  FIGURES  CAN  NOT  TELL 

tions  we  scarcely  dare  agitate  as  yet."  In  his  love 
they  discover  the  most  indefinable  mystery  that  even 
religion  has  to  offer.  Other  religions  have  their 
martyrs,  men  who  died  rather  than  surrender  their 
faith,  but  what  other  religion  sends  men  gladly  to  a 
living  martyrdom  that  they  may  give  self  for  the  sake 
of  others?  Here  is  the  social  power  of  Christ's  re- 
ligion, his  "throne  is  a  cross,"  his  inspiration  is  that 
of  human  service,  his  way  of  life  is  through  good  to 
others.  "The  power  of  the  love  of  Christ  has  been 
displayed  alike  in  the  most  heroic  pages  of  Christian 
martyrdom,  in  the  most  pathetic  pages  of  Christian 
resignation,  in  the  tenderest  pages  of  Christian  charity," 
says  Lecky.  "If  the  life  and  death  of  Socrates  were 
those  of  a  philosopher,  the  life  and  death  of  Jesus  were 
those  of  a  God,"  said  Rousseau. 

The  reproach  of  Christ  was  the  source  of  his  power. 
"He  emptied  himself,  taking  the  form  of  a  servant." 
So  his  disciples  were  exhorted  by  Paul,  in  his  letter 
to  the  Philippians,  to  be  of  the  same  mind,  and  in 
lowliness,  each  counting  other  better  than  himself, 
think  of  the  things  of  others  as  their  own.  It  has 
been  the  inner  circle  of  the  faithful  that  has  given  the 
world  its  Christian  civilization.  The  virtues  they 
display  are  those  we  turn  to  for  the  explanation  of  all 
that  is  best  in  our  civilization.  Christian  sacrifice 
is  not  for  personal  escape  of  penalty,  but  for  the  help 
of  the  "least  of  these."  If  it  be  said  that  "salvation 
is  character,"  it  can,  too,  be  said  that  sacrifice  is  service. 
The  Emperor  Julian  reproached  Christianity  for  its 
doctrine  of  the  equality  of  man.  By  that  doctrine  it 
has  overthrown  despotisms  and  destroyed  feudalisms 

53 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

and  created  democracies.  Lucian  ridiculed  it  for 
brother  love  and  especially  love  of  slaves,  "whom  the 
gods  ignored  as  men  of  inferior  nature."  But  that 
brother  love  has  lifted  up  the  fallen  and  made  the  very 
salt  of  society.  Through  it  slavery  has  been  over- 
thrown and  millions  redeemed  from  bondage.  By  it 
the  teaching  of  Plato  and  Aristotle  that  the  masses 
can  be  but  hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of  water,  and 
therefore  have  no  place  but  to  serve  the  elect  of  the 
race,  has  been  supplanted  by  making  of  them  citizens 
in  their  own  right  and  by  giving  the  government  of 
nations  to  their  will.  Celsus  satirized  it  for  its  message 
to  the  poor  and  weak  and  sinful.  But  Gibbon  said, 
that  while  the  empire  deteriorated  in  luxury,  a  pure 
and  humble  religion  gently  insinuated  itself  into  the 
minds  of  men,  grew  up  in  obscurity,  derived  new  vigor 
from  opposition,  and  finally  planted  its  banner  of  the 
cross  on  the  ruins  of  the  capitol.  The  dispossessed 
are  made  the  redeemed,  the  humble  are  exalted  into 
greatness,  the  poor  become  rich  in  those  things  that 
do  not  destroy  character.  As  egoism,  privilege,  and 
luxury  ruin  a  people,  Christianity  saves  through  the 
implanting  of  unselfishness,  charity,  and  humility. 

"It  was  reserved  for  Christianity  to  present  to 
the  world  an  ideal  character,  which  through  all  the 
changes  of  eighteen  centuries  has  inspired  the  hearts 
of  men  with  an  impassioned  love,  has  shown  itself 
capable  of  acting  upon  all  ages,  nations,  temperaments, 
conditions,  has  been  not  only  the  highest  pattern 
of  virtue  but  the  strongest  incentive  to  practice,  and 
has  exercised  so  deep  an  influence  that  it  may  be  truly 
said  that  the  simple  record  of  three  short  years  of  active 

54 


THINGS  FIGURES  CAN  NOT  TELL 

life  has  done  more  to  regenerate  and  soften  mankind 
than  all  the  disquisitions  of  philosophers  and  all  the 
exhortations  of  moralists,"  says  Lecky,  in  his  "His- 
tory of  European  Morals." 

It  is  this  same  religion  that,  in  its  purity  and  gentle- 
ness, is  insinuating  itself  into  the  arrested  life  of  archaic 
nations,  planting  itself  in  the  unleavened  mass  of 
heathen  races,  bringing  to  them  a  light  in  learning, 
and  giving  them  that  mightiest  of  all  civilizing  agencies, 
the  consecrated  personalities  of  men  devoted  to  their 
welfare.  "Subtract  the  Christian  personalities  and 
the  ideas  that  reigned  in  and  lived  through  them,  and 
you  have  but  the  struggle  of  brutal  passions,  of  men 
savage  through  ambition  and  lust  of  power,"  says 
Dr.  Fairbairn. 

Civilization  is  awakening  to  the  fact  that  "there  is 
also  a  missionary  interpretation  of  history."  Carlyle 
believed  that  progress  came  through  the  leadership 
of  "heroes"  and  by  "hero  worship."  A  more  modern 
theory  is  that  it  comes  through  the  leavening  per- 
sonalities and  combined  activities  of  groups  of  men 
devoted  to  a  common  idea.  The  missionary  goes  as 
the  emissary  of  a  new  and  better  day.  He  alone 
of  all  the  men  who  reside  in  foreign  lands  is  there  for 
an  utterly  unselfish  purpose.  He  alone  of  all  classes 
of  men  who  mingle  with  alien  peoples  believes  in  their 
potentialities,  and  has  supreme  confidence  that  what 
has  made  him  an  enlightened  being  can  make  every 
other  man  the  same.  He  has  nothing  to  ask  but  a 
chance  to  be  understood  and  an  opportunity  to  apply 
his  gospel.  He  is  never  defeated,  for  if  he  dies  there 
are  always  ten  to  ask  for  his  place.     His  sufferings 

55 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

are  turned  into  balms  of  blessing  for  the  children  of  his 
tormentors,  and,  if  he  is  martyred,  his  "blood  becomes 
the  seed  of  the  church."  He  is  the  "pioneer  in  every 
reform,  whether  it  be  religious,  social,  or  moral,"  said 
Tahil  Ram  Gunga  Ram,  a  Hindu  scholar.  All  are 
impressed  by  "the  nobility  of  spirit,  the  simplicity  of 
life,  and  the  single-minded  devotion  to  high  aim," 
claimed  for  him  by  Sir  Chas.  A.  Elliott,  Lieut.-Governor 
of  Bengal.  He  is  a  "worker  together  with  God,"  and 
"fills  up  in  his  own  body  what  lacks  of  the  sufferings  of 
Christ,"  that  by  his  sacrifice  he  may  communicate 
the  sacrifice  of  Christ.  There  are  many  testimonies 
to  his  efficiency  in  the  work  he  goes  to  do.  Two  will 
be  given  here.  One  is  taken  from  the  Japanese  Mail, 
a  secular  paper,  edited  by  non-Christians,  and  quoted 
by  Dr.  Dennis.  "They  lead  the  most  exemplary 
lives;  devote  themselves  to  deeds  of  charity;  place  their 
educational  and  medical  skill  at  the  free  disposal  of 
the  people,  and  exhibit  in  the  midst  of  sharp  suffering 
and  diversity  a  spirit  of  patience  and  benevolence 
such  as  ought  to  enlist  universal  sympathy  and  re- 
spect." The  other  is  from  the  words  of  Sir  Harry  H. 
Johnstone,  British  High  Commissioner  to  East  Central 
Africa,  and  a  man  who  has  spent  many  years  in  mission 
lands.  He  says,  "They  have  done  more  good  than 
armies,  navies,  and  treaties  have  yet  done." 

4.    Time  and  the  Tides. 

Customs  change  slowly.  Nations  and  civilizations 
are  not  made  in  a  day.  The  Kingdom  of  God  cometh 
without  observation.  It  is  first  the  blade,  then  the 
ear,  and  then  the  full  corn  in  the  ear.     Progress  pro- 

56 


THINGS  FIGURES  CAN  NOT  TELL 

duces  its  cataclysms,  but  its  great  eras  are  not  produced 
by  cataclysms.  The  progress  of  Christian  civiliza- 
tion is  that  cf  the  leaven  in  the  lump.  There  is  much 
yet  to  be  leavened.  It  is,  indeed,  one  of  the  supreme 
obligations  of  the  church  to  create  social  justice  at 
home  that  she  may  the  better  deal  with  the  social 
problems  she  is  creating  in  the  rejuvenation  of  the 
peoples  of  the  earth.  We  are  not  yet  purged  of  all 
our  paganism;  when  we  are  the  millennium  will  have 
come.  Our  confidence  is  in  the  comparison  we  can 
make  with  the  social  conditions  that  Christ  found 
in  the  world,  and  those  that  the  missionary  finds 
where  Christ  is  not  known.  What  the  missionary 
finds  is  a  challenge  to  us  to  give  what  we  have  received 
in  the  faith  that  what  has  been  done  for  us  will,  by  the 
same  power,  be  done  for  them. 

The  Roman  historian,  Tacitus,  tells  the  story  of 
our  pagan  ancestors  in  the  forests  of  the  Rhine.  They 
had  reached  about  the  same  status  as  had  the  American 
Indian  found  by  the  white  man  in  this  country.  They 
were  a  barbarous  folk,  dressing  in  skins  and  dwelling 
in  caves  and  in  tents  of  hide.  The  men  fought  and 
followed  the  chase,  and  the  women  cultivated  rude 
plots  of  ground.  They  were  straight,  ruddy  of  com- 
plexion, blonde  haired,  deep  chested,  and  vigorous. 
They  ate  raw  meat,  and,  in  times  of  great  victory, 
drank  from  the  skulls  of  their  vanquished  foes.  If 
they  wanted  a  bird  to  eat,  they  selected  a  smooth 
stone  from  the  brook,  and,  with  the  unerring  aim  of 
savage  arms,  skilled  in  all  the  arts  of  the  chase,  brought 
him  down  from  his  perch  in  the  trees.  If  they  wanted 
fish,  they  either  trapped  it  with  their  hands  or  hooked 

57 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

it  with  the  breastbone  of  a  small  bird.  If  they  ran 
across  a  bear  they  surrounded  him,  as  the  Africans  do 
the  hippopotami,  and  beat  him  to  death  with  their 
clubs.  The  Prussians  of  North  Germany  and  the 
Druids  of  England  made  human  sacrifices,  and  it  is 
probable  that  all  the  tribes  north  of  the  Alps  did  so 
until  centuries  after  the  beginning  of  the  Christian 
era. 

Culture  failed  to  make  Grecian  civilization  per- 
manent. There  lived  at  one  time  in  Athens,  then  a 
city  of  less  than  ten  thousand,  no  fewer  than  eighty- 
four  men  whose  names  are  known  until  this  day. 
Greek  sculpture  and  Greek  physic  have  never  been 
surpassed,  and  Greek  philosophy  is  still  mediating 
the  speculations  of  thinkers;  but  Greek  civilization 
failed.  It  did  not  have  the  saving  salt  of  social  right- 
eousness. Its  democracy  even  was  that  of  an  aris- 
tocracy, while  the  masses  were  but  servants  of  the  elect. 
The  famed  Roman  Republic  went  down  upon  the  bar 
of  patricianism.  No  civilization  will  endure  if  it 
sets  itself  to  cultivate  a  privileged  few.  Its  only 
surety  of  permanence  is  in  the  steady  progress  of  its 
powers  in  creating  a  democracy.  Roman  power  be- 
came the  power  of  the  select  and  privileged;  social 
justice  was  not  created;  there  was  no  equality  of  man 
and  no  enthusiasm  for  humanity.  The  emperor  be- 
came the  state.  Stoic  jurisprudence  did  much  to 
evolve  a  technical  justice,  but  it  never  recognized 
essential  human  equality;  it  never  gave  the  slave 
human  rights,  and  it  never  elevated  woman  to  the 
plane  of  man  before  the  law.  The  voice  of  the  people 
never  became  the  voice   of  God  in  imperial   Rome. 

58 


THINGS  FIGURES  CAN  NOT  TELL 

Individual  rights  were  suborned  in  favor  of  patrician 
privilege,  and  the  state  came  to  be  administered  for 
the  benefit  of  the  rulers.  Material  power  became 
regnant — a  sure  sign  of  inner  decay — and  luxury- 
brought  dissipations  that  ruined  the  favored,  while 
poverty  brought  weakness  and  immorality  to  the 
masses  and  thus  undermined  the  foundations  of  so- 
ciety. 

The  social  status  of  the  society  to  which  Paul  took 
Christianity  is  indicated  by  the  patriarchal  state  of 
the  family.  The  father  and  husband  was  supreme. 
The  wife  was  under  "tutelage,"  i.  e.,  she  was  a  minor 
before  the  law.  If  she  brought  a  dowery,  it  passed 
from  her  control  to  that  of  her  husband ;  her  inheritance 
was  only  equal  to  that  of  one  of  the  children.  She 
had  no  legal  rights  over  her  offspring.  She  was  an 
inferior  being  and  her  husband's  rights  were  despotic. 
Children  had  no  rights;  they  were  the  property  of 
their  father;  he  could  expose  them  to  death  if  not 
wanted  at  birth,  or  he  could  sell  them  to  whomsoever 
he  wished.  The  Lactrian  columns  in  the  midst  of 
the  city  of  Rome  were  the  appointed  place  to  which 
little  ones  could  be  brought  and  left  to  the  tender 
mercies  of  the  slaver,  or  of  the  man  who  wished  a 
servant.  Whosoever  desired  could  take  away  the 
little  body  that  parental  obligation  refused  to  consider, 
and  for  whom  there  was  no  parental  love,  unless  per- 
haps it  was  that  of  a  mother  who  dared  not  oppose 
her  husband's  determination  to  put  it  away.  There 
were  few  mercies  for  the  weak,  the  poverty-stricken 
starved  without  public  relief,  and  the  unfortunate 
bore  their  own  burdens  or  died  under  them.     Work  was 

59 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

not  respected.  Labor  had  no  dignity.  It  has  little 
enough  yet,  but  it  is  at  least  respectable,  and  has  the 
right  to  its  own  body  and  to  bargain  for  its  own  wage. 

In  the  Roman  Empire  there  were  60,000,000 
slaves  at  the  time  of  Christ.  In  Athens  there  were 
but  21,000  freemen  when  the  population  was  200,000. 
In  Attica,  the  seat  of  culture,  three  out  of  every  four 
were  bondsmen.  Plato  made  the  majority  of  men 
slaves  in  his  ideal  republic.  Aristotle  condemned 
the  majority  to  become  hewers  of  wood  and  drawers 
of  water,  and  had  no  faith  that  human  nature  could 
ever  make  them  worthy  of  aught  else.  Cato  allowed 
old  and  sick  slaves  to  be  disposed  of  as  a  burden. 
Cassius  defended  the  law  in  a  case  where,  according 
to  law,  600  were  executed  because  one  had  killed 
their  master.  Seneca  says  Pollio  mutilated  slaves 
in  anger  and  fed  their  flesh  to  the  fishes.  Juvenal 
asked,  "How  can  a  slave  be  a  man?"  Ulpian  speaks 
of  "a  slave  or  any  other  animal."  Seneca  said,  "A 
slave  has  no  home  or  religion."  Stoical  jurists  ruled 
that  they  were  property  the  same  as  animals.  They 
could  be  attached  for  debt,  their  testimony  was  ad- 
missible only  under  torture,  and  marriage  was  never 
legalized  for  them.  Their  first  gleam  of  hope  came 
when  Constantine's  code  began  to  implant  the  rudi- 
ments of  the  Christian  ideals  of  humanity. 

Paganism  is  egoistic,  proud,  and  selfish.  It  seeks 
every  one  his  own  and  might  makes  right.  Chris- 
tianity is  altruistic  and  implants  a  fundamental  re- 
spect for  the  things  of  the  other  man.  Harnack  says 
it  was  the  moral  power  of  Christianity  that  maintained 
it  during  the  early  centuries  of  persecution  and  finally 

60 


THINGS  FIGURES  CAN  NOT  TELL 

carried  the  world  for  it.  Greece  and  Rome  were 
starkly  individualistic.  The  church  became  popular 
and  bargained  with  paganism.  The  pure  faith  was 
adulterated  with  heathen  custom,  and  for  a  thousand 
years  Christianity  was  shorn  of  her  pristine  moral 
power;  but  she  never  lost  it,  and  during  even  the  "  Dark 
Ages"  the  leaven  was  working.  Whatever  the  custom, 
it  will  be  found  that  there  was  a  protest  somewhere 
among  the  prophetic  souls  who  had  not  lost  the  vision, 
and  that  their  light  was  as  a  pillar  by  night,  guiding 
the  courses  of  history. 

Ulfilas  crossed  the  Alps  with  the  gospel  in  the 
year  344  A.  D.  He  had  been  captured  in  one  of  the 
northern  raids  of  the  Emperor  of  the  Eastern  Empire 
and  his  ruddy  vigor,  fighting  powers,  and  handsome 
countenance  won  him  imperial  favor.  He  was  edu- 
cated and  was  offered  a  place  at  the  court,  but  he  had 
attended  the  churches  in  Constantinople  and  learned 
the  gospel  of  peace,  and  he  longed  to  herald  its  message 
to  his  barbarous  countrymen.  He  left  court  and  civili- 
zation behind  him  and  made  his  way  alone  to  native 
land,  with  the  sacred  Scriptures  as  his  choicest  weapon. 
He  translated  the  Bible  into  his  native  Gothic  tongue, 
after  having  reduced  it  to  writing.  A  single  illumi- 
nated copy  of  his  translation  is  yet  held  as  an  invaluable 
heirloom  of  Western  civilization,  and  is  preserved 
in  the  University  of  Upsala,  in  Sweden.  In  it  our 
pagan  forbears  found  the  chart  that  led  them  into 
civilization.  They  were  not  transformed  in  a  day; 
it  took  a  thousand  years  to  redeem  them,  and  even 
then  they  had  only  purged  out  the  grosser  habits  of 
barbarism;  and  it  has  taken  another  half  millennium 

61 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

to  bring  the  refinements  of  our  modern  life.     It  is  the 
law  of  the  leaven. 

In  the  year  208  A.  D.,  Tertullian  wrote  that  "places 
in  Britain  not  yet  visited  by  the  Roman  are  subject 
to  Christ."  In  314,  British  delegates  are  found  at 
the  Council  of  Aries.  St.  Patrick's  work  in  Ireland 
was  done  during  the  first  half  of  the  fifth  century. 
It  was  a  century  later  before  the  gospel  really  obtained 
a  hold  in  Scotland,  through  the  work  of  Columba. 
Not  until  the  year  700  A.  D.  could  the  British  Isles  be 
called  in  any  sense  Christian;  it  had  taken  five  hundred 
years  to  make  them  so.  Ireland  became  a  missionary 
recruiting  ground  and  "the  greenest  spot  in  Christen- 
dom." From  her  training  schools  and  evangelical 
activities  flowed  out  beneficent  streams  of  missionary 
activity  to  Friesland  and  Germany.  Willibrord  pio- 
neered on  the  mouth  of  the  Rhine  in  the  year  690  A.  D. 
The  Prussians  were  still  killing  their  deformed  children 
and  their  aged,  and  burying  wives  and  slaves  with 
their  deceased  lords.  The  Saxons  were  still  sea-rovers 
and  pirates.  So  savage  were  the  North  Germans,  that 
for  two  centuries,  between  the  years  1000  and  1200 
A.  D.,  none  dared  go  to  them.  It  was  not  until  1209 
that  a  missionary,  named  Christian,  succeeded  in  ob- 
taining residence  among  them,  and  it  was  a  thousand 
years  from  the  days  of  Ulfilas  before  the  gospel  was 
recognized  over  all  Western  Europe.  The  hardy 
Norsemen  were  among  the  rudest  and  wildest  of  the 
Teutons.  Willibrord  went  to  them  at  the  close  of  the 
seventh  century,  but  was  repulsed,  and  it  was  not 
until  the  year  827  A.  D.  that  Ansgar  began  the  work 
that  finally  prevailed.     It  took  two  hundred  years  to 

62 


A   Native  Church  in  the  Marshall  Islands,  South  Pacific  Seas. 
"^     Illustrating  native  carving  and  building  under  missionary 
instruction. 


Qffi 


cers  of  a   Native   Church  in   Marshall  Islands, 
people  were  naked  cannibals  a  generation  ago. 


These 


THINGS  FIGURES  CAN  NOT  TELL 

make  Denmark  Christian,  and  the  island  of  Borneholm 
did  not  surrender  until  1060.  Sweden  held  out  for  an- 
other one  hundred  years,  and  Lapland  did  not  yield 
until  late  in  the  thirteenth  century. 

If  it  took  a  thousand  years  to  convert  modern 
Europe,  shall  we  not  marvel  at  the  progress  made  in 
a  single  century  in  an  arrested  civilization  like  that 
of  China,  or  in  that  of  a  century  and  a  half  in  an  ancient 
and  debilitated  nation  like  India,  or  in  the  half  century's 
attainments  in  proud  Japan?  These  nations  have 
the  conservatism  that  comes  with  ancient  custom 
and  a  static  half-civilization.  Christianity  comes 
to  them  with  the  impact  of  its  Western  attainments; 
it  is  borne  on  the  wings  of  inventions,  and  brings  a 
world  of  progress  that  commends  its  message  in  a 
thousand  ways.  It  has  obtained  a  vast  momentum 
in  the  world,  and  by  that  law  it  will  overcome  more 
quickly  in  the  East  than  it  did  in  the  West.  It  is 
estimated  that  there  were  50,000  Christians  at  the 
end  of  the  first  century.  At  the  end  of  the  first  cen- 
tury of  Protestant  Missions  in  China  there  are  175,000 
communicants,  and  at  the  end  of  the  first  half-century 
in  Japan,  much  talked  of  as  one  of  the  fields  of  slow 
returns,  there  are  more  than  70,000  church  members. 
Facts  demonstrate  where  theories  only  contend. 
Christian  missions  bring  the  undeniable  success  of  a 
new  and  better  society,  and  challenge  interest  through 
the  offer  of  a  better  way.  In  times  of  change  men 
breathe  ideals  as  atmosphere,  and  the  masses  adopt 
them  without  stopping  to  debate  them.  Thus  there 
is  a  mighty  evangelism  in  custom,  and  the  Kingdom 
of  God  comes  in  ways  that  figures  can  not  register. 

63 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

Time  and  the  tides  of  progress  make  for  a  new  era, 
new  ideas  create  new  forms,  and  whole  peoples  are 
lifted  nearer  unto  the  Kingdom  that  Christ  came  to 
establish  in  the  earth. 

5.    The  Man  and  the  Idea. 

The  Duke  of  Argyle  said  that  when  you  planted 
an  incompatible  idea  down  alongside  a  false  belief, 
a  superstitious  practice,  or  a  cruel  custom,  there  was 
bound  to  be  a  revolution.  The  missionary  is  a  man 
with  an  idea.  And  he  not  only  possesses  the  idea,  it 
possesses  him,  it  is  incarnate  in  him,  he  becomes  the 
idea  in  action.  That  idea  is  one  that  brings  a  sublime 
faith  in  the  possibility  of  man;  it  fills  him  with  an  op- 
timistic outlook  on  the  world ;  it  is  backed  by  unshrink- 
ing confidence  in  the  potentiality  of  his  own  life, 
weak  as  it  may  be,  because  he  feels  God  is  in  it;  it 
gives  him  a  vision  and  he  lives  for  it,  though  never 
expecting  to  live  to  see  it,  for  he  is  strangely  unselfish 
of  that  which  moves  most  men  to  action  and  enjoys 
giving  his  life  for  others.  His  idea  is  that  the  good 
news  of  Christ  is  able  to  save  unto  the  uttermost. 
But  he  does  not  expect  that  idea  to  work  by  itself. 
Christianity  is  never  impersonal.  When  Peter  con- 
fessed the  Lordship  of  Jesus,  the  Master  told  him  that 
it  was  upon  such  confessions  he  would  build  his  church. 
The  Church  of  Christ  was  to  be  builded  out  of  men 
who  accepted  his  Lordship  and  undertook  to  live  his 
kind  of  life.  Paul  told  certain  of  his  converts  that 
they  were  his  "epistles,  known  and  read  of  all  men." 
The  missionary  not  only  takes  the  gospel,  he  is  the  gos- 
pel, and  the  testimony  from  the  foreign  field  is  universal 

64 


THINGS  FIGURES  CAN  NOT  TELL 

that  the  mightiest  factor  in  the  winning  of  the  pagan 
to  Christ  is  the  life  and  love  of  the  missioner.  "The 
mightiest  civilizing  persons  are  Christian  men,"  said 
Dr.  Fairbairn.  He  goes,  not  to  confer  blessings  but 
to  implant  them,  and  when  he  gets  them  truly  im- 
planted into  the  hearts  of  his  hearers  they  in  turn 
become  incarnations  of  the  idea  and  carry  it  on  to 
others. 

Henry  Van  Dyke  tells  a  little  legend  of  how  Jesus 
was  condoled  with  when  he  reached  Paradise  because 
his  project  of  saving  the  world  had  so  tragically  failed 
through  his  life  being  taken  away.  He  replied,  in 
surprise,  that  there  had  been  no  failure,  for  Peter 
and  John  and  all  the  disciples  would  tell  it  to  others, 
and  these  in  turn  to  others,  and  so  as  each  heard  and  ac- 
cepted he  would  tell  it  to  others,  until  at  last  the  whole 
world  shall  have  heard  it  and  believed,  and  the  King- 
dom of  God  will  have  come.  Darwin  said,  "The 
lesson  of  the  missionary  is  that  of  an  enchanter's 
wand."  He  was  atheistic  so  far  as  the  claims  of  the- 
ology were  concerned,  but  in  islands  off  the  coast  of 
Patagonia  he  had  seen  the  transformation  wrought 
by  the  missionary,  and  his  faith  in  their  power  to  make 
mightily  for  the  evolution  of  mankind  was  so  great 
that  he  sent  a  missionary  contribution  thereafter 
every  year  of  his  life.  What  was  true  of  Darwin 
is  true  in  this  day,  both  at  home  and  abroad.  The 
journalistic  interest  in  missions,  which  has  so  rapidly 
arisen  in  the  past  few  years,  is  because  men  of  the 
wcrld  have  seen  the  forces  for  civilization  laid  by  the 
missionary  and  noted  that  the  results  are  fairly  dra- 
matic in  their  surprises.     The  awakening  of  statesmen 

5  65 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

has  not  been  a  theological  but  a  sociological  awaken- 
ing, and  they  advocate  missions  because  of  their  con- 
tribution to  human  progress.  In  the  foreign  fields 
themselves  the  leaders  of  the  nations  which  are  ad- 
justing themselves  to  the  world  order  of  affairs  do  not 
hesitate  to  give  the  missionary  his  just  assessment 
as  a  contributor  to  their  new  national  life.  They 
contribute  to  his  schools  and  hospitals  and  read  his 
literature;  they  invite  him  into  their  councils  and  send 
their  sons  to  him  that  he  may  prepare  them  to  take 
part  in  the  new  order  of  things;  they  testify  that  he 
brought  the  idea  to  them  and  that  his  life  has  com- 
mended it  to  all  who  have  understood. 

The  missionary  is  thus  the  pioneer  of  social  prog- 
ress in  the  non-progressive  and  barbarious  nations. 
He  alone  goes  without  a  selfish  interest.  He  alone 
seeks  to  understand  the  people  to  whom  he  has  gone, 
and  to  confer  benefits  instead  of  seeking  them.  He 
alone  does  not  despise  them,  but  gives  them  his  fullest 
confidence  and  advocates  their  cause  even  though 
they  underestimate  his  motives,  or  even  if  they  so 
fail  to  understand  him  as  to  traduce  him  and  martyr 
him.  Greatest  of  all,  he  communicates  his  spirit  to 
his  converts  and  they  become  willing  sacrifices  upon 
the  altar  of  the  old  order  that  the  new  may  come. 
The  history  of  every  great  missionary  success  is  written 
in  the  sweat  and  blood  of  the  native  converts.  If 
they  have  not  given  their  lives  in  blood  and  flame,  as 
in  the  martyrdoms  of  Uganda,  Madagascar,  and  China, 
they  have  given  them  in  living  sacrifices  for  the  sake 
of  their  neighbors  whom  the  gospel  taught  them  to 
love.     Their    teacher    incarnates    in    them    his    own 

66 


THINGS  FIGURES  CAN  NOT  TELL 

Christ-like  faith  in  men.  In  Korea  the  native  elders 
of  many  churches  will  not  accept  an  inquirer  for  bap- 
tism until  he  has  brought  another  inquirer  to  be 
taught.  In  Samoa,  Robert  Louis  Stevenson,  who 
had  met  most  of  the  great  of  earth  in  his  time,  said  of 
one  of  the  native  missioners,  that  he  was  the  finest 
specimen  of  Christian  manhood  he  had  ever  looked 
upon.  James  Chalmers  wrought  for  years  with  the 
native  missioners  of  the  South  Seas,  and  boldly  com- 
pared them  with  the  choicest  and  most  heroic  spirits 
of  history.  In  China  to-day  young  men  are  turning 
from  lucrative  governmental  positions  to  teach  their 
fellows  the  riches  of  the  knowledge  of  Christ.  The 
missionary  gives  the  people  a  vision  and  they  do  not 
perish,  but  are  made  alive  with  new  life.  He  multi- 
plies his  number  by  scores  and  finally  by  hundreds 
and  thousands,  and  these  become  the  leaven  of  the 
nation.  Their  numbers  are  no  criterion  to  their  value 
in  the  life  of  the  people.  Their  influence  is  out  of  all 
proportion  to  their  power.  Upon  their  backs,  as  upon 
that  of  Atlas,  a  world  is  lifted  into  new  being. 

It  was  an  apothegm  of  ancient  paganism  that 
"a  man  is  a  wolf  to  a  man  he  does  not  know."  The 
missionary  turns  men  from  the  conquest  of  one  another 
to  that  of  self  and  of  nature  and  its  hidden  powers. 
He  teaches  the  Brotherhood  of  Man,  and  puts  faith 
in  the  place  of  the  old  and  paralyzing  suspicion  that 
characterizes  heathenism.  He  demonstrates  that  it 
is  more  heroic  to  die  for  a  cause  yourself  than  it  is  to 
kill  another  in  behalf  of  a  cause.  His  way  of  progress 
is  by  means  of  service  rather  than  by  the  way  of 
material  gain.     He  brings  material  gain  as  one  of  the 

67 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

inevitable  consequences  of  civilization,  and  a  new  con- 
ception of  toil  as  more  honorable  than  idleness,  and 
implants  the  revolutionary  idea  that  every  individual 
has  an  inalienable  right  to  his  own  life  and  the  fruits 
thereof,  but  he  does  not  bring  a  materialistic  con- 
ception of  progress,  nor  seek  to  confer  a  higher  life 
through  the  worship  of  mammon.  With  Edward 
Everett  Hale  he  believes  that  "progress  is  always 
spiritual,"  and  so  seeks  to  found  the  fundamentals  of 
it  in  the  moral  life  of  a  people  that  the  flood  and 
ebb  tides  of  worldly  acquisition  will  never  be  able  to 
sweep  them  off  its  firm  foundations. 

The  religion  he  takes  is  unlike  all  others  in  that 
it  is  not  racial  or  nationalistic.  It  does  not  rely  upon 
mass  movements  for  its  conquests,  nor  seek  to  gain 
peoples  through  battles,  or  by  law.  Charlemagne 
sought  to  convert  the  Saxons  to  his  half-learned  Chris- 
tianity by  a  military  crusade.  He  had  to  repeat  the 
military  invasion  several  times,  but  found  that  they 
were  as  pagan  as  ever.  A  wise  bishop  of  the  church 
advised  him  to  try  the  more  Christly  method  of  per- 
suasion and  benevolence,  and  they  were  won.  Vladi- 
mir accepted  Christianity  as  a  matter  of  state  and  sent 
priests  with  soldiers  to  baptize  his  subjects.  They 
had  the  choice  of  baptism  or  death  and  chose  the  former, 
and  Russia  is  unto  this  day  half  pagan;  it  has  a  form 
of  religion  without  the  substance  thereof.  Christian- 
ity makes  its  appeal  to  the  individual.  Jesus  frankly 
sought  out  men.  He  refused  to  lead  a  nationalistic 
movement  and  spent  much  of  his  time  with  single 
individuals.  His  conquest  of  the  earth  must  proceed 
by  the   process  of  winning  single   individuals.     But 

68 


THINGS  FIGURES  CAN  NOT  TELL 

these  individuals  are  never  to  be  individualistic.  They 
become  social  factors  in  just  the  measure  that  they 
become  his  men.  None  of  them  lives  unto  himself, 
but  counts  the  things  of  others  as  his  own.  The  in- 
dividual is  the  beginning  of  the  conquest,  but  society 
is  the  end;  he  is  the  factor  through  whom  the  gospel 
works  for  the  upbuilding  of  the  Kingdom  of  God,  but 
he  is  never  apart  from  the  whole  of  humanity,  nor  is 
his  obligation  ever  discharged  until  the  whole  world 
is  redeemed,  and  redeemed  in  all  its  ways.  A  native 
Hindu  has  said,  in  commending  Christianity,  "The  best 
way  to  raise  the  individual  is  to  raise  the  society  of 
which  he  is  a  member." 

The  missionary  goes  to  his  task  with  a  divine  pa- 
tience. He  looks  upon  himself  as  a  "worker  together 
with  God,"  and  he  is  willing  to  sow  and  nurture  while 
a  Divine  Providence  brings  in  the  increase.  Living- 
stone and  Gordon  knew  Africa,  and  felt  its  woes  as 
did  no  other  living  men,  but  they  did  not  fret  over  it. 
They  knew  that  the  processes  of  a  universe  are  slow 
and  they  were  willing  to  wait,  content  only  if  they 
had  done  their  part.  The  missionary  idea  is  optimistic. 
It  is  surcharged  with  the  faith  that  all  things  are  pos- 
sible. History  testifies  eloquently  to  its  force,  even 
when  it  has  been  borne  in  earthen  vessels.  It  comes 
not  with  theories  or  speculations  or  ologies,  but  with 
life  itself.  Stanley  believed  that  if  all  the  rest  of  the 
world  were  suddenly  bereft  of  Christianity,  there  was 
enough  vigor  and  understanding  of  the  simple  and 
essential  things  of  it  in  the  native  Uganda  church  to 
spread  it  over  the  world  again. 

It  has  been  a  man  with  an  idea  that  has  inaugurated 
69 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

every  reform  and  marked  the  beginning  of  every  new 
epoch.  The  idea  of  Jesus  that  every  man  could  be 
saved,  and  that  it  was  possible  to  create  a  perfect 
moral  order  of  society  through  fealty  to  the  things  de- 
sired by  the  Heavenly  Father,  is  the  most  potential 
that  was  ever  loosed  in  the  minds  of  men.  It  is  the 
missionary  idea,  and  with  it  the  missioner  goes  to  his 
task,  "becoming  all  things  to  all  men,  if  by  any  means 
he  may  win  some."  He  makes  commerce  and  rail- 
roads and  telegraphs  and  schoolhouses  and  govern- 
ments his  handmaidens,  but  the  thing  he  does  is  to 
create  a  new  Brotherhood  of  Man  in  the  name  of  him 
who  was  a  friend  to  every  man. 


70 


CHAPTER  II 

The  Home:   The  Corner-Stone  of 
Civilization 

1.     House  or  Home. 

Christianity  offers  the  world  the  ideal  of  a  home. 
Paganism  has  no  term  for  home.  The  abiding  places 
of  men  are  simply  houses.  Where  there  is  no  mutual 
refinement  or  respect  between  husband  and  wife  there 
can  be  no  true  home.  Heathenism  demands  that  the 
wife  regard  the  husband  with  an  attitude  of  worship, 
while  he  may  look  upon  her  with  total  disrespect.  In 
him  she  is  to  find  her  salvation.  Dr.  W.  A.  P.  Martin 
says  he  saw  three  thousand  women  praying  in  a  temple 
in  China,  and  their  petition  was  that  they  might  be 
reborn  men.  Hinduism  and  Buddhism  alike  teach 
that  her  only  hope  is  to  serve  him  faithfully,  that  she 
may  be  saved  with  him  and  serve  him  forever.  Thus 
she  has  willingly  immolated  herself  on  his  grave  and 
received  praise  for  her  devotion,  for  her  husband  was 
her  god. 

The  Koran  is  a  man's  Bible.  Woman  had  greater 
respect  in  Arabia  before  Mohammed  than  she  has 
under  his  teachings.  To  satisfy  his  desire  for  many 
wives  the  rule  of  polygamy  was  made.  He  limited 
his  followers  to  four  wives  each,  but  took  many  more 
himself,     and     allowed     concubinage.     He    sanctified 

71 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

polygamy,  slavery,  and  divorce,  and  made  them  all 
man's  prerogative,  while  woman  became  the  victim 
of  each  one.  Consequently  there  is  no  home  in  Islam. 
The  harem  is  a  house  where  the  wives,  concubines, 
and  slaves  of  the  wealthy  Moslem  are  kept.  It  knows 
nothing  of  love  unless  it  be  the  passing  favor  of  the 
lord  for  some  pretty  young  inmate  of  his  establishment. 
It  is  a  place  of  jealousy,  intrigue,  and  suspicion.  Mrs. 
Isabella  Bird  Bishop  says  she  was  approached  scores 
of  times  with  the  request  for  poison  to  put  an  end  to 
the  life  of  the  favorite  or  her  child.  She  describes  the 
pleasures  of  the  harem  as  being  disgusting,  and  the 
language  of  common  conversation  unfit  for  refined 
ears. 

What  is  true  of  the  harem  is  true  of  all  polygamous 
homes.  They  are  simply  houses  where  the  family 
live  and  are  sheltered  and  fed,  but  they  have  none  of 
the  sanctity  of  a  real  home,  nor  can  they  have,  for  two 
wives  can  not  dwell  together  in  harmony — it  is  not 
nature's  design.  Polygamy  implies  the  subjection 
of  woman  and  the  lordship  of  man,  and  thus  destroys 
that  equality  without  which  a  home  can  not  be  founded. 
There  is  a  Hindu  proverb  which  says,  "The  cow  is 
sanctified,  but  woman  is  depraved."  The  masses  of 
people  do  not  accept  that  proverb  literally,  for  there 
is  much  affection  between  husbands  and  wives,  and 
especially  do  sons  reverence  their  mothers  as  far  as 
it  is  possible  for  a  "superior"  being  to  reverence  an 
"inferior."  But  the  ideals  of  heathenism  are  all 
against  the  wife  and  mother  because  she  is  a  woman. 
Christianity  offers  no  loftier  sentiment  than  that  for 
mother.     Its  ideals  exalt  woman's  function  and  thus 

72 


THE  HOME 

exalt  the  home  and  make  it  what  De  Tocqueville 
called  it — "The  cornerstone  of  the  nation." 

The  family  meal  is  the  altar  of  the  Christian  home. 
There  reverence  and  gratitude  are  paid  the  Creator, 
and  the  sacrament  of  family  communion  is  kept. 
The  bonds  of  family  affection  and  mutuality  are  hal- 
lowed with  converse  over  topics  of  common  interest, 
and  all  minds  and  hearts  are  made  one  as  they  partake 
of  the  food  that  is  provided  by  the  co-operation  of 
all  its  members.  The  pagan  family  does  not  have 
the  common  meal.  In  Africa  and  other  savage  lands 
the  woman  eats  alone  and  after- her  lord  has  departed. 
In  more  cultured  pagan  lands  she  serves  him  and  par- 
takes of  what  is  left.  Among  some  barbarous  peoples 
she  is  not  allowed  to  eat  of  the  same  kind  of  food  that 
he  does.  Even  in  Japan  it  is  not  good  form  for  the 
ladies  of  the  house  to  eat  with  the  husband  and  guests. 
The  rule  in  pagan  households  is  for  the  sexes  to  eat 
separately.  The  female  members  of  the  house  are  the 
servants  of  the  male  members. 

Modesty  is  the  means  in  which  society  clothes 
itself  for  the  protection  of  the  finer  sentiments,  and  the 
practice  of  it  is  the  line  of  demarcation  between  the 
lower  and  higher  forms  of  social  life.  It  begins  in  the 
home  and  in  the  mutual  regard  its  members  possess 
for  one  another.  It  is  the  safeguard  thrown  about 
young  people  to  guarantee  purity  of  manners  and  the 
sanctity  of  virtue  in  their  commingling.  It  is  whole- 
some when  it  is  unconsciously  practiced,  but  becomes 
a  means  of  unholiness  when  it  is  not  natural  and  worn 
with  grace.  Christianity  cultivates  a  natural  modesty. 
It  clothes   womankind   with   refinement   of   manners 

73 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

and  gives  her  the  freedom  of  friendship  and  the  fel- 
lowship of  innocence.  Paganism  suspects  womankind. 
It  regards  her  as  a  snare  rather  than  a  grace,  and  a 
danger  instead  of  an  inspiration.  It  allows  no  court- 
ship because  it  has  no  confidence  in  virtue.  The 
right  to  choose  a  life  companion  is  denied  youth.  The 
contract  is  made  by  parents  or  guardians,  and  there 
is  usually  a  money  consideration  involved.  The  ex- 
change of  money  implies  the  relationship  of  servant 
where  the  groom  pays  for  it,  or  that  girls  are  a  burden 
to  be  disposed  of  where  the  father  of  the  bride  pays  it. 
In  savagery  girls  are  sold  as  slaves  and  treated  as 
such.  A  man's  wealth  and  social  position  are  deter- 
mined by  the  number  of  wives  or  female  slaves  he  pos- 
sesses. In  India  girls  are  a  burden  because  they 
must  be  married  with  a  dowery,  i.  e.,  some  man  must 
be  paid  for  taking  them.  In  both  cases  there  is  a  sen- 
sual idea  of  woman's  position.  In  the  zenana  she  is 
kept  in  seclusion  because  she  is  not  trusted.  The 
purdah  is  the  result  of  an  age-long  attitude  of  sus- 
picion toward  womankind.  The  Moslem  either  con- 
fines his  wife  in  the  harem  or  compels  her  to  wear  a 
veil  in  public.  In  either  case  he  advertises  his  dis- 
trust of  her  and  breaks  down  that  sense  of  unconscious 
modesty  that  makes  womankind  the  symbol  of  all 
that  is  purest  and  best  to  the  Christian  mind.  Her 
seclusion,  and  the  walls  of  distrust  built  around  her 
by  heathenism,  deprive  her  of  confidence  and  destroys 
her  integrity. 

It  is  a  Christian  proverb  that  no  house  is  large 
enough  for  two  families.  Every  home  has  its  holy 
of  holies,  into  which  none  may  come  but  its  own  im- 

74 


THE  HOME 

mediate  members.  The  intimate  bonds  of  the  home 
are  those  of  closest  relationship,  and  to  destroy  the 
inner  confidences  with  the  encroachment  of  even  be- 
loved friends  or  other  relatives  is  to  weaken  the  home 
bonds  themselves.  Christianity  says  a  man  shall 
leave  his  father  and  mother  and  cleave  unto  his  wife, 
and  they  twain  shall  be  one  flesh.  The  patriarchal 
household  makes  this  close  attachment  impossible. 
In  India  and  China  as  many  as  forty  are  found  under 
one  patriarchal  roof.  Sons  bring  their  wives  to  the 
parental  roof-tree,  and  all  are  subject  to  the  father  so 
long  as  he  lives.  The  daughter-in-law  must  obey 
her  husband's  mother,  and  is  often  the  subject  of 
tyranny.  There  is  a  common  treasury  and  the  mother 
provides  the  common  pantry.  Delinquent  members 
of  the  family  come  to  be  provided  for,  and  there  is  no 
inspiration  for  the  various  individuals  to  cultivate 
thrift.  Idleness  begets  idleness,  and  all  are  pulled 
down  toward  the  level  of  the  least  worthy  of  the  house- 
hold. The  house  is  the  scene  of  quarreling  between 
the  various  wives  and  families,  and  envy,  distrust, 
and  jealousy  run  riot.  An  imperious  old  woman  can 
make  life  an  inferno  for  every  daughter-in-law,  and 
sons  are  set  at  strife  in  defense  of  their  families,  or 
husbands  and  wives  at  variance  through  hatred  of  the 
women  for  one  another.  The  intimate  confidences 
are  lost  to  the  children.  They  have  no  sense  of  family 
life  as  they  have  in  a  Christian  home,  and  are  used 
to  bickering  and  strife,  and  learn  to  be  selfish  instead 
of  mutually  helpful.  There  is  much  unrest  with  this 
manner  of  life  in  India  wherever  the  better  way  of 
independent   homes   is   seen   through   the   coming   of 

75 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

Western  ways,  but  the  orthodox  sentiment  is  yet  so 
strong  that  when  the  Madras  legislature  passed  a  law 
legalizing  the  right  of  every  man  to  his  independent 
earnings,  riot  was  threatened  and  the  law  repealed. 
The  permanence  of  the  home  depends  upon  the 
sanctity  of  the  marriage  relation.  The  divorce  evil 
is  one  that  demands  attention  in  our  Christian  lands, 
but  if  it  is  menacing  here  what  shall  we  say  of  it  in 
pagan  lands,  where  there  is  almost  no  constraint? 
In  civilized  Japan  every  sixth  marriage  is  dissolved; 
a  few  years  ago  it  was  every  third  one.  Japan  now  has 
a  law  that  makes  divorce  a  matter  of  court  decree,  but 
it  still  allows  the  bond  to  be  dissolved  by  mutual 
agreement,  and,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  larger  number 
are  thus  dissolved.  China  allows  seven  causes  for 
divorce,  among  which  is  talkativeness.  Nearly  all 
pagan  lands  allow  a  woman  to  be  put  away  if  she  is 
childless,  and  most  of  them  give  the  husband  practically 
the  sole  right  of  divorce.  Mohammedanism  gives  the 
husband  the  sole  right;  the  common  practice  is  to  have 
one  wife  at  a  time,  but  to  have  many  in  the  course 
of  a  lifetime.  Short  time  marriages  are  common  in 
Arabia  and  Turkey.  One  resident  in  Arabia  says  he 
scarcely  knows  of  a  man  of  thirty  that  has  not  been 
married  to  from  two  to  five  women.  Where  woman  is 
not  on  a  plane  of  equality  with  man  he  will  not  greatly 
respect  her  rights.  If  he  regards  her  as  having  no 
soul,  or  as  an  inferior  order  of  being,  he  will  not  be 
sensitive  to  her  feelings.  Where  she  is  his  servant 
and  pawn,  he  ceases  to  think  of  her  as  one  having 
rights,  and  so  regards  only  his  own  selfish  privileges 
and  acts  accordingly. 

76 


THE  HOME 

The  mission  church  insists  strongly  on  the  sanctity 
of  the  home,  and  makes  regard  for  it  a  condition  of 
membership.  If  a  man  has  two  or  more  wives  he  must 
put  away  all  but  one.  This  is  a  stumbling-block  to 
many  and  a  hardship  to  some,  but  it  is  the  lesser  of 
all  the  evils  involved,  for  without  a  monogamous 
home  there  can  be  no  permanent  Christianity  and  no 
civilization  worth  the  having.  "A  nation  will  not  be 
better  than  its  homes,"  says  Shailer  Mathews.  Jesus 
made  much  of  the  home  in  his  teachings,  and  used 
it  as  type  and  symbol  in  the  profoundest  things  of 
his  discourses.  It  is  the  cornerstone  of  civilization. 
From  it  flows  all  other  virtues,  and  the  safety  of  the 
home  is  the  guarantee  of  progress.  So  the  missionary 
refuses  to  recognize  concubinage  and  polygamy  and 
casual  divorce.  The  young  Korean  and  Chinese 
churches  expel  members  who  take  concubines.  There 
are  no  excuses  or  relenting,  though  it  is  a  native  proverb 
that  "A  man  marries  his  wife,  but  loves  his  concubine." 
A  native  Chinese  Christian  tells  blushingly  of  how 
embarrassed  he  felt  when  he  determined  to  walk  with 
his  wife  upon  the  street,  and  of  how  such  custom  as  the 
church  taught  him  brought  respect,  and  finally  true 
affection  for  the  woman  to  whom  his  parents  had 
married  him  without  his  having  seen  her  before  the 
wedding  day.  In  Japan  the  Christian  custom  is  fast 
taking  hold  of  the  family  relationship,  and  husbands 
and  wives  may  be  seen  in  public  and  at  the  table  to- 
gether. When  the  present  Mikado  proclaimed  the 
constitutional  regime  he  rode  in  public  procession  with 
his  wife,  and  thus  recognized  a  new  attitude  toward 
women ;  but  he  celebrated  the  twenty-fifth  anniversary 

77 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

of  his  accession  to  the  throne  by  taking  another  con- 
cubine, and  his  heir  is  the  son  of  one  of  these  secondary 
wives.  The  crown  prince,  however,  has  only  one  wife 
and  treats  her  with  all  the  respect  of  Christian  custom. 
The  missionary  makes  a  specialty  of  girls'  schools. 
In  India  but  one  woman  in  every  170  can  read.  The 
missionary  aims  to  teach  every  girl  that  comes  into 
the  church  to  read,  and  one-third  of  all  the  pupils 
in  mission  schools  are  girls.  In  Syria,  Turkey,  and 
Egypt  especially  are  schools  for  girls  thriving.  The 
modern  youth  seek  them  for  wives  and  they  are 
honored.  Their  homes  are  models  of  cleanliness,  as 
compared  with  the  old  type,  and  they  preserve  their 
womanly  independence;  refinement  and  reticence 
take  the  place  of  the  old  vulgarities,  and  the  Christian 
home  can  be  selected  immediately  from  among  those 
not  yet  redeemed  by  the  higher  ideals.  Heathenism 
does  not  govern  with  a  rational  discipline,  as  indeed 
ignorance  never  does,  but  beats  when  angry  and  coddles 
when  in  good  humor.  The  Christian  home  brings  a 
higher  type  of  intelligence  and  a  more  normal  discipline 
for  children,  and  above  all,  it  brings  a  like  regard  for 
boys  and  girls.  When  plagues  break  out  the  Christian 
cottage  is  more  nearly  immune,  because  sanitation 
has  been  taught  there  and  thus  life  is  better  preserved. 
In  Samoa  the  missionaries  established  a  school  for 
the  instruction  of  young  married  couples  in  the  art 
of  home-making.  Marriage  is  made  a  matter  of  affec- 
tion and  not  of  barter,  and  the  young  lady  is  given, 
first,  the  right  to  womanhood  before  being  compelled 
to  enter  domestic  relation,  and,  second,  the  right  to 
her  own  will  in  the  choice  of  a  husband.     If  custom 

78 


THE  HOME 

demands  that  she  be  not  courted,  as  is  allowed  in 
Christianized  lands,  she  can  at  least  see  the  lad  who 
is  proposed  for  her  and  exercise  the  right  of  veto. 

2.    The  Index  of  Progress. 

The  place  accorded  woman  in  a  society  is  an  index 
of  its  state  of  progress.  If  no  nation  can  endure  half 
slave  and  half  free,  no  society  can  progress  half  servant 
and  half  master.  The  laws  of  a  state  are  a  record 
of  its  customs;  the  maxims  of  its  sages  and  wise  men 
are  records  of  its  ideals.  With  these  two  records  be- 
fore us  we  have  an  understanding  of  the  place  ac- 
corded woman  by  the  ancients. 

In  the  Roman  world  woman  was  a  ward  of  her 
husband.  She  was  never  his  equal  before  the  law 
but  was  under  "tutelage,"  i.  e.,  under  his  protection 
and  treated  as  a  minor.  In  Greece  not  even  her 
father  could  legally  will  her  an  estate  in  her  own  right. 
She  had  no  freedom  to  go  abroad  before  her  marriage, 
but  was  kept  in  seclusion  until  she  could  go  in  her 
husband's  right.  Aristotle  gave  her  a  place  between 
that  of  a  freeman  and  a  slave,  and  Plato  said  her  place 
and  honor  consisted  in  keeping  the  house  and  obeying 
her  husband.  That  great  philosopher  suggested  a 
community  of  wives  and  that  none  should  know  which 
were  her  own  children,  in  order  that  they  might  be 
made  better  citizens  of  the  state;  not  a  high  tribute 
to  motherhood  to  say  the  least.  Pericles  thought  her 
most  highly  honored  when  no  one  spoke  of  her;  as  if 
the  very  mention  of  her  was  an  immodesty.  In  Greece, 
as  in  Rome,  she  was  a  minor  before  the  law  and  was 
treated  as  were  her  own  children. 

79 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

In  both  Greece  and  Rome  the  husband  had  the 
legal  power  of  life  and  death  over  his  wife  and  children. 
The  patriarchal  forms  inhered  in  the  legislation  of 
these  governments.  Upon  marriage,  any  property 
she  possessed  passed  into  the  absolute  control  of  her 
husband.  She  could  make  no  legal  bargain  after 
marriage,  but  must  act  through  her  husband.  To 
mingle  with  freemen  in  public  and  listen  to  the  lectures 
of  the  philosophers  of  olden  Greece,  or  to  obtain  educa- 
tion for  herself  and  have  part  in  the  learned  professions, 
she  was  compelled  to  accept  the  position  of  an  unchaste 
woman.  Aspasia  and  others  of  the  noted  women  of 
ancient  learning  accepted  this  portion  that  they  might 
break  the  barriers  that  stood  between  womankind 
and  a  life  of  learning.  The  law  expressed  the  position 
which  she  held  in  common  judgment,  though  law  usu- 
ally follows  the  progress  of  custom,  and  she  was  often 
accorded  privileges  before  the  law  recognized  them. 
Augustus  legalized  concubinage,  and  in  all  social  life 
the  trend  of  imperial  Rome  was  downward  from  the 
mere  severe  codes  of  the  republic.  She  was  distrusted 
by  the  sages,  and  their  ideas  offered  no  hope  of  a  better 
position  to  her.  Plato  spoke  of  her  as  "that  part  of 
the  race  which  is  by  nature  prone  to  secrecy  and 
stealth."  Seneca  thought  most  women  to  be  "cruel 
and  incontinent  in  their  desires."  Cato  declared 
"all  women  were  plaguey  and  proud,"  and  expelled 
Manilius  from  the  Senate  "because  he  had  kissed 
his  wife  in  the  daytime  and  in  the  presence  of  his 
daughter." 

So  severe  was  the  law  that  custom  ran  counter  to 
it  and  there  grew  up  a  form  of  "free  marriage"  in 

80 


THE  HOME 

Rome.  It  gave  woman  more  freedom,  but  did  it  at 
the  cost  of  her  morals  and  her  influence.  Under  it 
she  could  hold  her  own  property  and  retain  member- 
ship in  her  father's  family,  but  the  result  was  short- 
time  marriages  and  every  form  of  marital  looseness. 
She  could  divorce  her  husband,  and  Seneca  said, 
"There  are  women  who  count  their  years,  not  by  the 
number  of  consuls,  but  by  the  number  of  their  hus- 
bands." Gibbon  says  that  "passion,  interest,  caprice, 
suggested  daily  motives  for  the  dissolution  of  mar- 
riages." She  had  her  choice  between  respectability 
under  repression  of  her  individuality,  or  freedom  at  the 
expense  of  her  virtue.  In  neither  case  was  she  in  a 
position  of  equality  with  her  brother. 

Our  Teutonic  ancestors,  according  to  Tacitus,  pur- 
chased their  wives  and  held  right  of  life  and  death 
over  them  by  law,  but  held  them  in  much  higher  es- 
teem than  did  the  Romans.  She  shared  his  camp  and 
wilderness  life  and  with  him  bore  the  burdens  of  war 
and  the  chase.  Anglo-Saxon  wives  were  known  to 
have  immolated  themselves  on  their  husband's  grave. 
Polygamy  was  not  unknown,  but  one  husband,  one 
wife,  was  the  rule,  and  infidelity  on  the  part  of  the 
wife  was  terribly  punished  at  the  husband's  discre- 
tion. Her  virtues  were  prized  and  she  could  inherit 
property  from  her  father,  though  her  husband  alone 
could  sell  and  manage  her  estate.  She  was  under  tute- 
lage because  she  could  not  fight,  but  her  position  was 
a  vast  improvement  over  that  of  the  luxurious  South. 
Says  Tacitus,  "They  carry  on  their  affairs,  fenced 
about  with  chastity,  corrupted  by  no  enticements  of 
spectacles,    by   no   excitements   of   convivial   feasts." 

6  81 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

When  these  barbarians  made  conquest  of  Rome, 
they  were  horrified  by  the  state  of  life  they  found, 
but  fortunately  Christianity  had  come  with  its  re- 
demptive social  power  and  showed  them  the  promise 
of  better  manners. 

In  the  accounts  of  the  life  of  Christ,  and  in  the 
history  of  the  Apostolic  church,  woman  is  accorded 
honor  and  esteem.  Marriage  vows  were  strict  and 
the  bond  was  one  of  equality.  Through  the  infant 
church  there  grew  up  in  the  midst  of  ancient  society 
the  norm  of  a  better  social  and  family  life,  that  in  the 
course  of  time  elevated  woman  to  a  position  of  uni- 
versal honor  and  issued  in  the  chivalric  devotion  of  the 
middle  ages.  Formerly  her  weakness  had  made  her 
the  object  of  subjection,  but  it  now  came  to  make 
her  the  object  of  protection.  Chivalry  tended  to  make 
her  but  an  ornament  and  to  set  her  aside  from  the 
courses  of  virile  life,  but,  once  her  position  was  re- 
deemed from  that  of  tutelage,  she  claimed  her  in- 
tellectual rights.  The  early  church  recognized  her 
as  an  office-bearer  and  as  the  chief  ministrant  of  charity. 
If  it  denied  her  the  privilege  of  public  discourse,  it 
was  only  to  save  her  from  the  criticism  of  an  age  that 
conceived  of  all  public  women  as  of  doubtful  character, 
and  to  the  more  securely  fix  respect  for  her  in  the 
public  mind. 

Constantine's  laws  first  adopted  Christian  princi- 
ples in  any  form  into  the  Roman  code.  He  did  not  go 
far  in  his  inculcation  of  them,  but  he  recognized  them. 
He  gave  woman  equal  civil  rights  with  man,  and  abol- 
ished concubinage  and  forbade  any  woman  remarrying 
who   had   divorced   her   first   husband   without   good 

82 


THE  HOME 

cause.  The  later  and  more  Christian  code  of  Jus- 
tinian abolished  the  absolute  power  of  the  husband, 
gave  the  wife  legal  rights  to  movable  property,  al- 
lowed her  to  become  the  legal  tutor  of  her  children, 
and  began  to  make  her  the  mother  that  modern  law 
proclaims  her  to  be.  In  the  middle  ages  the  church 
was  paganized  by  the  world  to  such  an  extent  that  the 
Christian  ideal  made  slow  progress,  but  the  voice  of 
the  church  councils  was  generally  in  favor  of  the  larger 
rights  of  womankind.  Canon  law,  i.  e.,  the  law  of  the 
church,  was  more  progressive  in  regard  to  women, 
children,  and  slaves  than  were  the  laws  of  the  kings. 
The  Christian  kings  from  the  days  of  Ethelbert  of 
Kent  and  of  Charlemagne  led  in  the  recognition  of 
woman's  growing  rights,  and  especially  sought  to  re- 
deem her  from  purchase  and  insure  her  a  dowery. 
Charlemagne  took  severe  measures  to  repress  divorce 
and  declared  he  made  the  laws  in  recognition  of  the 
principles  of  Christianity.  She  was  finally  allowed 
to  appear  in  court  in  her  own  behalf,  and  at  last,  in 
the  thirteenth  century,  France  declared  her  no  longer 
under  "tutelage."  The  old  Germanic  idea  of  force 
as  the  source  of  authority  began  to  give  way  to  the 
more  benign  precepts  of  Christianity,  and  the  theory 
of  innate  human  rights  began  to  take  its  place. 

The  story  of  civilization  is  the  story  of  woman's 
progress.  No  society  can  advance  beyond  the  ideals 
it  holds  of  motherhood.  Christianity  has  abolished 
bridal  purchase  and  has  elevated  woman  from  legal 
tutelage  to  the  position  of  a  freeman  before  the  law; 
it  has  made  marriage  a  bond  of  the  soul,  and  the  wife 
a  companion  of  her  husband  instead  of  his  servant; 

83 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

it  gave  the  mother  the  right  of  guardianship  over  her 
children,  reserved  to  her  the  privilege  of  giving  her 
own  hand  in  wedlock,  and  put  her  on  an  equality  with 
her  spouse  in  the  obtaining  of  divorce.  The  religion 
of  Jesus  has  ever  championed  the  cause  of  the  op- 
pressed. It  knows  neither  male  nor  female,  neither 
bond  nor  free.  In  all  its  conquests  it  has  plead  the 
cause  of  woman  and  rapidly  placed  her  upon  a  higher 
plane  in  society.  No  wonder  the  old  pagan  philosopher 
cried,  "What  women  these  Christians  have!"  She 
has  ever  held  honorable  place  in  the  Christian  church, 
and  her  virtues  are  the  noblest  our  religion  celebrates. 
"It  is  a  fact  significant  for  the  past,  prophetic  for  the 
future,  that  even  as  Dante  measured  his  successive 
ascents  in  Paradise,  not  by  immediate  consciousness 
of  movement,  but  by  seeing  an  ever  lovelier  beauty  in 
the  face  of  Beatrice,  so  the  race  now  counts  the  gradual 
steps  of  its  spiritual  progress,  out  of  the  ancient  heavy 
glooms,  toward  the  glory  of  the  Christian  millennium, 
not  by  mechanisms,  not  by  cities,  but  by  the  ever 
new  grace  and  force  exhibited  by  the  woman  who  was 
for  ages  either  the  decorated  toy  of  man,  or  his  de- 
spised and  abject  drudge,"  said  the  eloquent  Dr. 
Stors. 

3.     Man  Everything,  Woman  Nothing. 

"The  theory  of  heathenism  is  that  man  is  every- 
thing and  woman  nothing,"  says  one  of  the  older 
missionaries  to  China.  What  was  true  of  the  world 
to  which  Christ  came  is  true  of  the  world  to  which 
his  missionaries  go  to-day.  The  late  Shah  of  Persia  had 
eight  hundred  wives.    The  Emperor  of  China  must  have 

84 


THE  HOME 

a  royal  household  of  women,  and  the  higher  officiary 
follow  his  example.  The  Sultan  of  Turkey  takes 
slave  girls  only  into  his  harem,  and  they  are  freed  only 
upon  the  birth  of  sons.  The  late  Sultan  was  known 
to  have  killed  one  of  his  slave  wives  with  his  own  hand. 
The  Mikado  of  Japan  keeps  concubines  and  the  King 
of  Siam  is  a  polygamist.  African  chieftains  count 
their  wealth  by  the  number  of  female  slaves,  and  in  all 
savagery  woman  is  property  to  be  inherited,  purchased, 
and  sold  as  material  goods,  or  animals.  In  more  cul- 
tured pagan  lands  she  is  at  the  disposal  of  her  father 
in  marriage,  and  man's  powers  border  upon,  if  indeed 
they  do  not  become,  that  of  a  slave  owner.  In  China, 
Siam,  and  India  monogamy  is  the  rule  among  the 
masses,  but  concubinage  is  allowed  to  all  who  can  af- 
ford it,  and  divorce  is  in  the  husband's  hands.  To 
say  there  are  no  happy  women  in  paganism  would  be 
gross  error,  but  the  average  of  happiness  and  the  pos- 
sibilities of  living  any  adequate  life  are  far  below  the 
average  of  Christendom.  Indeed,  it  may  be  said  that 
the  masses  of  heathen  women  are  content  with  their 
lot,  but  it  is  because  they  know  nothing  else,  and  it 
is  Christianity's  part  to  arouse  a  discontent  wherever 
humanity  is  not  living  up  to  its  highest  possibilities. 
If  one  desires  womankind  to  be  demure  and  ornamental 
and  to  act  the  part  of  a  beautiful  toy,  he  could  not  do 
better  than  to  go  to  old  Japan,  where  her  subservience 
and  ingrained  modesty  make  her  petit  and  winsome 
and  obedient.  If  he  wishes  her  to  be  subservient, 
obedient,  industrious,  and  dutiful,  let  him  go  to  China 
where  she  makes  her  husband  her  lord  and  lives  for  the 
sake  of  her  sons.     But  if  he  wishes  her  to  possess  in- 

85 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

dividuality,  spirit,  independence,  and  a  mind  of  her 
own,  he  will  go  to  no  pagan  land,  but  to  those  lands 
where  Christianity  has  had  the  freest  sway  and  she 
has  come  into  that  natural  inheritance  the  Creator 
designed  for  all  his  children. 

The  proverbs  and  sayings  of  the  sages  are  the  same 
in  modern  pagan  lands  that  they  were  in  the  ancient. 
In  India  the  Laws  of  Manu  proclaimed  that  "A  woman 
is  never  fit  for  independence."  They  provided  that 
she  be  dependent  on  her  father  until  she  had  a  husband, 
and  upon  her  sons  if  her  husband  was  deceased;  if  she 
had  no  father  or  sons,  then  upon  her  husband's  nearest 
male  relative,  and  if  no  male  relative,  then  upon  the 
sovereign.  A  reflection  of  this  is  found  in  medieval 
times  by  the  Christian  kings  making  the  widow 
their  special  ward;  but  they  made  her  such  that  they 
might  provide  her  protection,  while  in  heathenism  she 
is  made  a  pawn  by  those  who  are  thus  made  her  guard- 
ians. In  India  widowhood  means  disgrace.  She 
must  take  off  her  jewels,  shave  her  head,  put  on  coarse 
garments,  eat  but  once  each  day,  attend  no  festivity, 
nor  mingle  with  the  crowd,  for  her  presence  is  a  curse; 
her  husband  is  dead  and  she  has  no  one  to  honor  or 
live  for,  and,  by  the  ideals  of  woman's  place,  should 
have  died  with  him.  She  belongs  to  her  husband  for 
eternity  and  may  not  remarry,  for  her  hope  is  in  faith- 
fulness to  his  memory;  but  if  she  had  died  first,  her 
husband  could  remarry  as  often  as  he  chose.  She  is 
preyed  upon  by  wicked  men,  made  a  slave  to  her  de- 
ceased husband's  family,  or  sent  home  to  be  counted 
a  burden  in  her  father's  household.  In  India  there 
are  to-day  25,000,000  of  these  poor,  abject  creatures 

86 


THE  HOME 

of  harsh  misfortune,  115,000  of  them  under  ten  years 
of  age,  and  none  to  pity  aside  from  those  whose  hearts 
have  been  touched  by  the  compassion  of  him  who  so 
often  relieved  the  widow's  distress,  and  made  it  the 
cardinal  practice  of  his  religion  to  visit  her  and  her 
children    in    their    distress. 

"Man,"  said  Confucius,  "is  the  representative 
of  Heaven  and  supreme  over  all  things.  Woman 
yields  obedience  to  the  instructions  of  man  and  helps 
to  carry  out  his  principles.  She  may  take  no  step 
on  her  own  notion  and  may  come  to  no  conclusion 
on  her  own  deliberation."  Like  Manu,  he  prescribed 
that  she  must  be  obedient  to  her  father,  husband,  or 
sons.  He  said  the  duties  of  the  house  were  her  sole 
business,  and  that  "beyond  the  threshold  of  apart- 
ments she  should  not  be  known  for  evil  or  for  good." 
The  character  that  spells  her  name  is  closely  akin  to 
those  that  stand  for  strife  and  for  disorderly  conduct. 
Confucius'  teachings  regarding  her  individual  rights 
were  much  like  those  of  Plato.  The  Greater  Learning 
said  that  "the  only  qualities  that  befit  a  woman  are 
gentle  obedience,  chastity,  mercy,  quietness."  Chinese 
women  have  excellent  personal  qualities,  but  are  de- 
nied the  rights  of  personality.  She  is  married  to  whom- 
soever her  parents  choose  and  usually  not  allowed  to 
see  her  betrothed  until  the  wedding  day.  If  she  knows 
who  he  is  it  is  immodest  for  her  to  speak  to  him  or 
recognize  him  upon  meeting.  After  marriage  her 
husband  may  act  without  much  reference  to  her  feel- 
ings if  he  is  so  disposed.  Very  often  he  is  kindly  and 
treats  her  with  regard,  but  it  is  not  demanded  of  him 
by  society.     Her  father  may  sell  her  if  he  chooses, 

87 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

and,  in  times  of  distress,  does  so  without  let  or  hin- 
drance. She  thinks  of  herself  as  an  inferior  being 
and  knows  nothing  but  the  part  of  humiliation.  If 
a  Buddhist,  she  prays  to  be  reborn  a  man  that  she 
may  be  saved,  for  none  but  men  will  be  saved.  As  in 
all  pagan  lands,  the  philosophers  look  upon  her  as  a 
necessary  evil,  and  the  masses  make  her  a  drudge. 
But  in  drudgery  is  her  larger  spiritual  freedom.  If 
she  has  to  work  she  can  not  be  confined  to  the  house 
and  her  feet  must  not  be  bound.  She  is  ignorant  and 
apathetic  toward  the  larger  things  cf  life  and  could 
not  be  expected  to  be  aught  but  a  gossip,  a  creature 
of  intrigue,  and  quarrelsome.  In  savage  lands  she 
is  frankly  a  slave.  A  man's  wealth  is  measured  by 
the  number  of  his  wives,  i.  e.,  the  number  of  his  female 
slaves.  She  is  the  slave  class  because  she  is  the 
drudge,  while  men  are  warriors  and  hunters.  When 
protest  was  made  to  an  African  whose  wife  was  carry- 
ing him  over  a  stream  on  her  back,  he  asked  with  all 
guilelessness,  "If  my  wife  should  not  carry  me  over, 
whose  should?" 

In  pagan  lands  few  women  are  ever  allowed  to 
claim  the  privileges  of  youth.  They  are  married  at 
tender  age  and  burdened  with  the  position  of  servant 
to  their  husband's  mother  and  with  the  duties  of 
motherhood.  In  China  the  term  "slave-girl"  is  the 
one  often  applied  to  a  bride,  and  she  is  married  be- 
tween the  ages  of  seventeen  and  twenty.  Her  position 
is  better  there  than  in  more  southern  Asiatic  lands  or 
in  any  of  the  savage  lands.  In  India  the  Brahmanic 
law  is  that  she  must  be  married  before  twelve  years 
of  age,  and  one-half  of  all  are  wedded  between  the  ages 

88 


THE  HOME 

of  ten  and  fourteen.  The  contempt  of  society  is 
mightier  than  the  law  of  the  land,  and  not  to  be  wedded 
before  that  age  is  to  be  disgraced.  One  girl  child 
out  of  every  eight  is  married  between  the  ages  of  five 
and  nine,  and  there  are  at  least  a  quarter  of  a  million 
who  are  betrothed  in  their  cradles,  or  before  the  age 
of  five  years.  In  Moslem  lands  they  are  married 
before  fourteen,  and  in  Siam  before  twelve,  or  at  thir- 
teen she  is  sold  as  a  serf  to  the  highest  bidder.  In  all 
these  places  spinsterhood  is  a  disgrace  not  to  be  con- 
doned, and  if  a  girl  can  not  be  a  wife  she  must  be  a 
slave.  In  Japan  her  father  has  a  chattle  right  over 
her  and  may  pawn  her  into  disgrace  as  a  pledge  for 
money  borrowed,  or  to  pay  a  debt.  Her  only  recom- 
pense is  that  the  life  into  which  she  is  thus  bartered 
does  not  disgrace  her  for  the  conjugal  relationship, 
and  she  may  be  married  out  of  it  in  the  course  of  time. 
This  fact  alone  argues  powerfully  for  the  low  plane 
of  her  position,  as  well  as  for  the  low  order  of  morals 
in  a  nation. 

Being  an  inferior  person,  it  is  not  considered  that 
she  needs  education.  In  China  only  one  out  of  every 
two  or  three  thousand  can  read  and  write.  In  India 
only  six  out  of  every  thousand  can  do  so,  and  the  Eng- 
lish Government  provides  a  public  school  system.  In 
Japan  she  is  now  being  taught  in  the  public  schools 
and  shows  herself  the  equal  of  her  brothers,  as  she 
ever  has  when  allowed  equal  intellectual  opportunities. 
Chinese  girls  find  a  wide  open  door  and  a  crying  need 
for  their  talents  in  medicine,  and  Japanese  women 
are  entering  the  teaching  and  nursing  professions, 
after  the  manner  of  American   and   English  young 

89 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

ladies.  In  India,  where  her  ignorance  is  most  abject 
and  where  it  was  said  that  you  had  as  well  put  a  razor 
in  a  monkey's  hand  as  to  give  woman  an  education, 
she  has  furnished  poets,  novelists,  teachers,  and  other 
leaders,  especially  in  works  of  benevolence.  Pandita 
Ramabai  was  widowed  in  early  life,  but  she  was  in 
fortunate  position,  and  coming  to  America  interested 
Christian  people  in  her  design  to  found  a  home  for 
her  country's  child  widows.  She  began  in  1889 
with  two,  and  now  has  over  two  thousand  under  her 
care  in  her  community  at  Poona.  Dr.  W.  A.  P. 
Martin  says  the  minds  of  these  women  are  not  dull, 
and  that  they  are  stupid  only  because  untaught;  that 
the  girls  of  China  are  among  the  brightest  of  pupils 
and  always  possess  the  best  morals.  They  have  been 
reared  in  twilight,  and  when  brought  out  into  the  sun- 
light of  instruction  they  blossom  with  beauty.  The 
untaught  women  of  paganism  become  the  chief  con- 
servers  of  the  old  ways,  because  they  are  immersed 
in  superstition  and  are  conservative  through  ignorance. 
To  debase  a  mind  is  to  make  it  its  own  worst  enemy 
and  to  destroy  within  it  all  power  of  initiative.  Women 
are  the  slowest  to  accept  Christianity  because  they 
are  most  difficult  of  access,  and  because  of  the  tempera- 
ment acquired  through  subjection  and  superstitions. 
It  is  not  to  be  thought  that  she  has  no  influence.  The 
very  devotion  in  which  she  serves  her  lord  gives  her  a 
vast  influence  over  him.  She  has  the  care  of  her  sons 
during  their  plastic  early  period  of  life,  and  as  the 
only  honor  she  receives  is  that  of  mother,  she  never 
loses  a  sort  of  dominance  over  them. 

To  the  native  mind  it  looks  like  social  anarchy  to 
90 


THE  HOME 

so  radically  change  the  position  of  woman  and  to  so 
reorder  all  conceptions  of  the  home  as  Christianity 
proposes.  Most  of  the  household  acts  of  pagan  life 
are  radically  connected  with  religion,  and  the  super- 
stitious mind  can  see  nothing  but  religious  disruption 
in  the  change.  In  China  the  worship  of  ancestors 
is  a  household  act  and  woman  can  not  perform  it; 
she  must  provide  sons  or  her  husband  and  his  ancestors 
can  not  receive  tribute.  All  her  religious  hope  is  in 
the  present  arrangement.  In  India  every  household 
has  its  idol,  and  daily  obeisence  must  be  made  as  a 
protection  from  the  evil  eye  and  other  misfortunes. 
Woman  knows  no  god  except  through  her  husband, 
and  the  idea  of  a  personality  for  herself  is  foreign  to 
her.  No  pagan  religion  holds  a  high  ideal  for  woman. 
Christianity  demands  that  she  have  the  right  to  stand 
before  the  altar  with  her  brothers.  It  asks  equality 
of  individuality  for  her  when  her  husband  has  been 
accustomed  to  think  it  a  disgrace  to  speak  of  her  other- 
wise than  apologetically.  Even  Buddhism,  the  most 
humane  of  all  pagan  faiths,  gives  her  a  character  of 
passivity  and  makes  her  a  negative  personality,  the 
shadow  of  her  husband.  Her  status  is  fixed  religiously, 
and  religion  is  the  mightiest  of  conserving  forces,  as 
well  as  the  greatest  of  dynamics  in  reform.  Whether 
it  will  act  as  a  dynamic  or  a  static  force  depends  upon 
its  principles,  and  Christianity  is  the  one  great  re- 
formative faith. 

Everywhere  are  the  signs  of  awakening.  Here 
again  the  missionary  confers  a  vast  benefit  over  and 
above  the  actual  making  of  converts.  The  ideal  of 
home  and  motherhood  that  he  takes  finds  lodgement 

91 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

in  the  good  soil  of  the  better  nature  of  men  in  heathen- 
ism and  is  bringing  forth  fruitage.  Mere  example 
is  not  enough.  The  Parsis  have  dwelt  in  Bombay  for 
centuries,  and  their  women  have  been  given  an  equality 
with  men  and  educated  as  their  brothers  have  been. 
This  fact,  together  with  their  rejection  of  caste,  has 
made  them  superior  among  native  Hindu  peoples.  But 
India  passed  them  by  without  learning  the  lesson,  and  no 
Parsi  would  stoop  to  teach  it,  for  his  is  not  a  missionary 
religion.  But  Christianity  inculcates  the  lesson  by 
entering  into  the  hearts  of  men.  It  may  not  lift  all 
conviction  to  the  level  of  actual  conversion  to  the 
church,  but  it  lifts  multitudes  to  the  level  of  more 
humane  custom  and  better  ways  of  thinking.  The 
Gaekwar  of  Baroda  is  not  a  Christian,  but  he  is  awake 
to  the  need  of  reforms  in  India,  and  is  one  of  its  most 
advanced  rulers.  He  has  broken  caste  by  traveling 
abroad  and  openly  preaches  the  superior  social  life 
of  Christianity.  As  quoted  by  Robert  Speer,  in  his 
"Christianity  and  the  Nations,"  he  says  regarding 
India's  women:  "Early  marriage  must  increase  death 
and  disease  among  mothers,  swell  infant  mortality, 
and  injure  the  physic  of  the  race.  A  too  strict  Purdah 
mutilates  social  life  and  makes  its  current  dull  and 
sluggish  by  excluding  the  brightening  influence  of 
women.  By  denial  of  education  to  women  we  deprive 
ourselves  of  half  the  potential  force  of  the  nation,  deny 
our  children  the  advantage  of  having  cultured  mothers, 
and  by  stunting  the  faculties  affect  injuriously  the 
heredity  of  the  race."  In  Japan  women  are  taking 
a  place  in  intelligent  society  and  in  public  affairs. 
In  China  a  recent  meeting  to  protest  against  the  opium 

92 


THE  HOME 

traffic  was  not  only  attended  by  women,  but  they  par- 
ticipated in  it  on  an  equality  with  men.  In  India 
societies  are  now  organized  looking  to  the  redemption 
of  her  position  through  raising  the  age  for  marriage, 
encouraging  the  marriage  of  widows,  and  providing 
for  her  education.  The  day  of  her  emancipation  is 
dawning,  but  Robert  Speer  says,  "The  non-Christian 
principles  of  class  and  sex  inequality  have  ruled  the 
whole  world  except  where  Christ  has  changed  it." 

4.    The  Divine  Right  of  Childhood. 

In  nothing  does  Christianity  shine  more  resplendent 
by  contrast  than  in  its  treatment  of  children  and  in 
its  claims  of  natural  right  for  them.  When  Jesus 
took  the  little  ones  in  his  arms  and  blessed  them, 
he  conferred  upon  childhood  a  benediction  that  has 
blessed  it  wherever  his  gospel  has  carried  the  good 
tidings  of  his  emancipatory  message.  Heathenism 
is  condemned  by  no  one  thing  more  than  by  its  in- 
sensibility to  human  pain  and  the  utter  numbness  of 
its  sympathetic  powers.  In  modern  times,  as  in 
ancient,  the  rule  of  the  pagan  world  is  that  the  right 
of  the  father  is  supreme  over  the  life  of  his  offspring. 
The  child  is  treated  as  the  property  of  its  parent, 
and  its  chance  in  life  is  bounded  by  his  human  interest 
in  it.  Under  a  culture  that  is  so  little  characterized 
by  the  finer  sentiments  of  humanity  and  that  knows 
so  little  of  charity,  the  rights  of  childhood  can  not 
be  many.  Sons  have  ever  had  the  better  chance  in 
life,  because  of  the  selfish  interests  of  the  fathers. 
They  have  been  privileged,  not  by  any  inherent  rights 
of  their  own  as  human  beings,  but  through  the  selfish 

93 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

concern  of  their  fathers.  Daughters  have  suffered 
the  ignominy  of  being  born  females.  In  ancient  times, 
as  in  modern,  heathen  parents  valued  them  little  if 
times  were  hard,  or  if  luxury  was  great  and  their  care 
a  burden. 

Quintillian  said,  "To  kill  a  man  is  often  held  to  be 
a  crime,  but  to  kill  one's  own  children  is  sometimes 
considered  a  beautiful  action  among  the  Romans." 
In  the  midst  of  the  city  of  Rome  stood  the  Lactrian 
columns.  At  their  feet  children  that  were  not  wanted 
could  be  taken  in  the  night,  and  to  them  came  barterers 
in  human  flesh,  to  claim  whatever  their  inhuman 
choice  might  prefer.  Occasionally  a  childless  woman 
might  come  to  get  consolation  for  her  empty  heart 
and  take  one  of  the  exposed  little  ones  to  her  motherly 
bosom;  often  men  and  women  came  to  get  for  their 
households  those  whom  they  could  make  slaves  or 
servants;  more  often  the  abandoned  little  ones  fell  into 
the  maws  of  those  inhuman  beings  who  are  willing 
to  traffic  in  the  flesh  and  blood  of  their  kind  and  to 
rear  children  as  they  might  cattle  for  lives  of  toil,  or 
worse,  that  they  might  sell  them  into  the  shambles 
of  shame.  Those  who  placed  them  there  knew  what 
the  results  were  to  be,  but  they  perhaps  considered 
it  better  than  the  custom  of  strangling  them  to  death 
with  their  own  hands,  or  exposing  them  in  the  wilds 
for  the  beasts  to  prey  upon.  Most  horrible  of  all  it 
was  not  unknown  for  witches  to  seek  their  dead  bodies 
that  brains  and  vital  parts  might  be  used  in  their 
abominable  incantations.  Greece  practiced  what  we 
have  here  noted  of  Rome.  In  neither  country  did 
a  child  have  any  standing  before  the  law.     Its  life 

94 


THE  HOME 

was  utterly  in  its  father's  hand.  Under  the  Stoics 
some  gain  was  made  in  obtaining  natural  rights,  and 
the  gradual  enlightenment  that  time  brought  ameli- 
orated their  fate  in  custom,  but  little  was  really  gained 
until  Christianity  struck  the  hearts  of  men  with  com- 
passion and  began  to  find  lodgement  in  legal  enact- 
ment, through  the  codes  of  Constantine  and  Jus- 
tinian. The  former  ordered  that  when  children  could 
not  be  supported  at  home  they  should  be  brought 
to  the  officials  and  supported  from  the  treasury. 
What  such  support  was  worth  may  be  judged  by  the 
like  provision  made  in  modern  China,  where  it  is  said 
the  filth  and  squalor  of  government  provided  asylums 
are  indescribable  and  the  death  rate  high,  while 
it  is  pitiful  to  hear  the  wails  of  the  little  orphans, 
half  cared  for  at  the  hands  of  an  officiary  which  knows 
no  compassion  beyond  that  imbibed  from  heathenism. 
What  was  done  by  ancient  heathenism  is  done  by 
modern.  There  yet  exists  in  China  the  towers  into 
which  parents  could  put  their  undesired  little  ones 
at  night,  and  to  which  those  who  desired  them  for  any 
purpose  could  come  to  obtain  them.  In  famine  times 
children  are  sold  for  a  few  shillings,  and  it  is  no  un- 
common sight  to  see  the  bodies  of  little  girls  exposed 
at  the  riverside.  Infanticide  is  one  of  the  most  open 
and  brazen  of  heathen  customs.  When  in  1870  the 
registration  of  births  was  made  compulsory  in  India, 
whole  villages  were  found  to  have  but  one  girl  child 
to  ten  boys.  In  1843  in  one  whole  tribe  not  a  female 
infant  could  be  found.  In  whole  provinces  it  was 
found  that  there  was  but  one  girl  child  to  every  six 
boys,  and  there  are  authorities  who  declare  that  to 

95 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

this  day  what  can  not  be  longer  done  in  the  open  is  done 
by  stealth  in  innumerable  cases.  Poverty  preys  upon 
the  bodies  of  children  now  as  among  the  ancients, 
and  poverty  is  one  of  the  omnipresent  phenomena  of 
heathen  lands.  In  the  fourth  century  it  reached  the 
climax  of  its  devastations  in  Rome,  and  all  the  laws  of 
the  empire  were  powerless  to  prevent  the  inherent 
paganism  of  the  masses  from  practicing  the  olden 
horror.  The  same  is  true  in  modern  India  and  China, 
and  even  more  so  among  the  untutored  sons  of  bar- 
barous lands. 

Among  some  tribes  of  Africa  children  born  other- 
wise than  according  to  prescribed  custom  are  immedi- 
ately killed.  Some  kill  all  twins,  and  most  tribes  make 
way  with  deformed  or  unnatural  babes.  The  ancients 
destroyed  their  defective  babes,  or  even  worse,  allowed 
them  to  be  mangled  that  they  might  be  used  for  beg- 
ging, just  as  we  are  told  is  done  in  modern  pagan  lands 
where  there  is  no  Christian  law  to  forbid.  Seneca 
said:  "Monstrous  offspring  we  destroy.  It  is  not 
anger  but  reason  to  thus  separate  the  useless  from  the 
sound."  Among  the  Gallas  of  Africa  the  custom  is 
to  throw  any  first-born  child  that  happens  to  be  a 
girl  into  the  woods  to  die.  Among  other  tribes  all 
twins  are  destroyed.  In  the  South  Seas  the  mission- 
aries found  the  strangling  of  infants  one  of  the  com- 
monest of  customs.  In  other  places  all  born  in  certain 
seasons  were  destroyed,  and  there  is  scarce  a  bar- 
barous land  where  is  not  found  the  practice  of  de- 
stroying child  life  with  impunity.  Heathenism  is 
stricken  with  a  lack  of  pity  and  dominated  by  the 
brutality  of  the  strong.     Gibbon  says,  "The  exposi- 

96 


THE  HOME 

tion  of  children  was  the  stubborn  vice  of  antiquity." 
It  prevailed  down  until  the  fourth  century  in  Rome, 
and  among  the  less  tutored  races  of  Europe  until 
Christianity  gained  authority  over  their  consciences. 
The  sacrifice  of  children  prevailed  in  Prussia  until 
within  a  thousand  years  of  our  own  time.  It  prevails 
until  this  day  among  peoples  in  a  like  stage  of  barbar- 
ism, wherever  they  may  be  on  the  earth.  Christianity 
is  the  only  religion  that  champions  the  rights  of  the 
little  ones  as  their  divine  heritage.  It  is  the  only 
religion  that  holds  their  example  up  as  a  type  of  the 
better  life  and  says,  "A  little  child  shall  lead  them." 
It  alone  provides  orphanages  for  them  and  punishes 
crimes  against  their  persons  as  against  those  of  adults. 
That  which  heathenism  makes  their  offense,  viz., 
their  weakness,  Christianity  makes  their  defense,  and 
provides  extra  precaution  for  their  protection. 

But  it  is  not  in  matters  of  life  and  death  alone, 
nor  in  the  supreme  authority  of  parents  to  barter  and 
sell  them  that  they  suffer  in  non-Christian  lands.  It 
is  a  Chinese  saying  that  there  is  a  "pail  of  tears  for 
every  bound  foot."  The  suffering  entailed  upon  mil- 
lions of  little  almond-eyed  girls  by  that  cruel  custom 
can  not  be  estimated.  It  was  not  sanctioned  by  Con- 
fucius, but  is  the  social  custom  of  centuries.  To-day 
Anti-Foot  Binding  Societies  are  thriving  in  China. 
They  were  organized  by  missionary  women  and  are 
fostered  by  statesmen  who  acknowledge  their  debt 
to  the  missionary.  To  have  large  feet  in  China  is  to 
be  out  of  fashion  and  to  suffer  that  cruel  ostracism 
which  Dame  Fashion  administers,  even  in  Christian 
lands,  with  terrible  severity.     Few  desire  such  girls 

7  97 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

in  wedlock,  and  they  are  made  a  laughing  stock  and 
an  object  of  jibes  from  their  own  sex.  It  will  take 
time  to  uproot  such  a  social  custom,  and  no  less  a 
power  than  one  that  will,  like  Christianity,  make  it  a 
matter  of  conscience  can  ever  succeed.  The  pitiable 
case  of  the  child  widow  in  India  was  spoken  of  in  a 
previous  section  of  this  chapter.  Though  the  law  now 
forbids  the  marriage  of  any  child  under  the  age  of 
twelve,  or  before  fourteen  if  protested,  it  is  not  en- 
forced where  native  sentiment  does  not  approve  it. 
The  only  relief  for  the  child  life  of  heathenism  is 
the  new  valuation  of  life  which  Christianity  brings. 
Even  if  the  gross  cruelties  of  sale  and  death  are  for- 
bidden through  a  greater  enlightenment,  there  will 
be  no  real  emancipation  until  Christianity  brings  its 
divine  right  of  childhood.  In  the  midst  of  ancient 
society  the  church  stood  as  the  savior  of  child  life. 
It  forbade  the  exposure  of  little  ones  and  made  it  a 
virtue  to  rescue  them.  It  founded  asylums  and  ad- 
ministered them  for  centuries  before  governments 
learned  that  the  founding  of  such  institutions  were  a 
part  of  their  responsibility.  In  mission  lands  to-day 
the  church  does  the  same  work.  In  famine  times  in 
India  it  has  rescued  its  tens  of  thousands,  and  at  all 
times  has  entered  its  note  of  protest  against  abhorrent 
custom.  The  supreme  right  of  the  father  extended 
to  maturity  and  beyond  among  the  ancient  pagans, 
just  as  it  does  to  this  day  in  modern  China.  He  had 
the  legal  power  of  life  and  death  and  his  will  was  su- 
preme by  the  patriarchal  law.  It  was  not  until  Con- 
stantine  wrote  his  cede  that  the  right  to  kill  a  son  in 
punishment  was  denied,  and  not  until  in  the  days  of 

98 


THE  HOME 

the  more  Christian  laws  of  Justinian  that  a  son  was 
given  rights  to  his  own  property.  China  is  yet  living 
in  that  ancient  era  so  far  as  legal  rights  are  concerned, 
but  she  is  receiving  a  vast  leaven  from  Christian  in- 
fluences and  will  recast  more  law  and  custom  within 
the  next  generation  than  Rome  did  in  three  centuries. 
The  church  was  small  in  Rome,  but  she  brings  with 
her  the  mighty  impact  of  a  Christianized  civilization 
to  these  modern  nations  and  the  race  will  be  more 
quickly  run. 

5.    The  Missionary  Home  a  Social  Center. 

The  missionary  home  is  a  sort  of  social  settle- 
ment in  the  midst  of  the  pagan  community.  The 
settlement  idea  is  that  of  simply  living  and  making 
a  home  in  the  midst  of  a  neighborhood  that  has  need 
of  higher  examples  of  living.  The  friendship  of  neigh- 
bors who  will  uplift  and  lend  a  helping  hand  is  believed 
by  settlement  workers  to  be  the  primal  means  of  ef- 
fecting social  good.  They  conceive  of  the  home  as 
being  as  much  personal  as  institutional,  and  as  the 
chiefest  medium  through  which  neighborly  help  can 
be  extended.  The  settlement  is  a  neighborhood 
house  and  to  it  all  are  welcome  as  friends,  for  through 
personal  friendship  religion  reaches  its  most  perfect 
social  interpretation. 

Some  have  said  that  the  greatest  single  contribu- 
tion of  missions  is  that  of  the  Christian  home.  If  the 
home  be  the  foundation-stone  of  order  and  progress  in 
a  civilization,  and  if  non-Christian  peoples  are  found 
to  be  most  lacking  in  real  home  life,  then  the  con- 
tribution of  a  model  Christian  home  is,  indeed,  one  of 

99 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

the  chief  contributions  to  be  made  to  their  social  wel- 
fare and  uplift.  In  it  are  found  those  exemplary- 
characters  which,  however  we  may  consider  them  as 
the  most  fundamental  objects  of  Christian  culture, 
are  never  made  outside  of  association  with  other  in- 
dividuals, and  whose  virtues  shine  never  so  resplend- 
ently  as  in  the  intimacies  of  family  life. 

One  missionary  woman  tells  how  she  did  her  work 
through  her  home  duties  and  preached  without  ser- 
mons through  the  medium  of  a  quiet  and  home-like 
entertainment  of  her  native  neighbors.  The  door 
was  ever  open  and  the  tea  cup  always  ready.  The 
housekeepers  of  the  neighborhood  were  welcomed  as 
friends,  and  sat  them  down  for  a  friendly  chat.  Their 
familiar  questions  were  her  opportunities.  They 
learned  of  the  Christian  ideals  of  home  refinements 
and  of  sanitary  housekeeping.  She  instructed  them 
in  the  wifely  arts  of  mending  and  fancy  work  and  all 
manner  of  neat  house  wifery.  Cooking  came  in  for 
its  share  of  talk,  and  many  a  lesson  was  given  in  hy- 
gienic preparation  of  foods.  In  these  lessons,  given 
through  the  natural  interest  of  neighbors  in  her,  to 
them,  new  and  strange  manner  of  living,  she  instructed 
them  not  to  despise  their  own  ways,  but  to  add  to 
them  the  universal  needs  of  cleanliness,  economy, 
harmony,  beauty,  neatness,  and  refinement.  For  it 
must  be  remembered  that  the  missionary  does  not 
advocate  the  building  of  houses  after  the  Western 
model,  nor  the  changing  of  customs  to  agree  with 
Western  innovations,  but  only  that  the  principles 
of    better    and    more    cleanly    living    be    introduced 

100 


THE  HOME 

into  their  ways,  and  that  orderliness  and  sanitation 
be  used  in  the  practice  of  their  native  customs. 

One  of  the  curiosities  of  the  missionary  home  to 
most  of  its  neighbors  is  the  honor  and  regard  paid  the 
wife  by  the  husband,  and  the  mutual  life  they  live 
in  their  family  relationships.  Love  is  universally  at- 
tractive. Peoples  whose  customs  forbid  any  inter- 
change of  affection  between  husband  and  wife  are 
attracted  to  the  better  way  when  they  see  it  practiced 
by  those  whose  probity  they  respect,  and  they  come 
to  comprehend  that  it  is  the  way  to  a  higher  happiness. 
When  husband  and  wife  go  abroad  they  walk  side  by 
side,  while  the  pagan  wife  must  ever  keep  to  the  rear, 
or  go  not  at  all  when  her  husband  goes;  it  excites 
comment  and  curiosity  and  not  infrequently  adverse 
criticism  until  it  is  better  understood  and  more  familiar 
to  their  eyes,  but  gradually  it  establishes  a  new  re- 
gard for  womankind,  and  in  the  course  of  time  begins 
to  break  down  the  old  and  insidious  practices  of  dis- 
respect to  which  their  wives  have  been  accustomed 
from  times  immemorial.  To  lift  one-half  of  humanity 
into  the  regard  and  social  respect  of  the  other  half 
is  a  mighty  achievement,  and  when  that  one-half  is 
the  motherhood  of  a  race  it  is  scarcely  possible  to 
measure  its  effects  upon  society. 

The  orderliness  and  refinement  of  the  Christian 
home  is  usually  in  striking  contrast  to  that  of  the 
lowly  homes  about  it.  In  savage  Africa  houses  are 
built  low  and  small,  without  chimneys  or  windows, 
and  the  only  means  of  entrance  is  through  a  low  door 
that  makes  entering  an  acrobatic  feat.     Inside  there  is 

101 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

no  furniture  beyond  a  possible  rude  shelf  or  two,  and 
a  low  bed  of  grass  and  mats.  The  floor  is  mud  or  the 
excreta  of  the  herd,  tramped  hard  with  native  feet,  and 
the  smoke  of  the  fire  fills  the  air  as  it  seeks  outlet 
through  the  thatched  roof  or  open  door.  Inside  there 
is  anything  but  cleanliness,  and  the  usual  refinements 
of  separating  the  sexes  and  providing  for  privacy,  are 
unthought  of.  The  patriarchal  households  of  the 
more  cultured  peoples  do  not  allow  privacy,  and  the 
communal  village  life  of  the  more  barbarous  tribes 
have  never  thought  of  it.  In  China  and  India  the 
masses  live,  not  in  cities,  nor  in  isolated  farm-houses, 
as  do  Americans,  nor  yet  in  separate  yards,  as  we  do 
in  our  town  life,  but  in  small  villages.  Their  streets 
are  narrow  alleyways  or  an  unkept  country  road,  and 
the  small  and  unkempt  houses  are  builded  close  against 
each  other.  The  roofs  are  low,  the  street  line  irregular, 
the  open  spaces  uncared  for  and  full  of  filth.  There 
is  no  regularity  of  outline  in  things,  and  everything 
bears  the  impress  of  disorder.  Privacy  is  not  main- 
tained in  separated  family  living.  Every  one  knows 
every  one  else's  business,  and  the  chief  diversion  of 
the  settlement  is  gossip.  There  is  but  one  well,  and 
to  it  both  humans  and  animals  repair  indiscriminately. 
In  India  it  may  be  a  great  tank  or  pool,  and  cattle 
and  men  alike  frequent  it  for  the  quenching  of  thirst; 
all  repair  there  for  the  provision  of  cooking  water, 
the  doing  of  the  village  washing,  and  to  find  a  common 
center  for  the  village  life.  The  unspeakable  sanitary 
conditions  can  be  better  imagined  than  described, 
and  the  appalling  death  rate  that  obtains  among 
children   needs   little   lurther   explanation. 

102 


THE  HOME 

In  striking  contrast,  the  village  of  the  native  Chris- 
tian community  stands  as  an  illustration  of  how  Chris- 
tianity redeems  the  home  life.  It  is  not  a  paradise 
of  beauty  and  refinement,  but  it  is  a  vast  improve- 
ment over  the  old  manner  of  family  life.  The  dwelling- 
places  are  cleaner  and  the  children  clothed  with  regard 
for  modesty;  the  walls  are  upright  and  the  roofs  in 
better  repair;  the  floors  may  still  be  of  earth,  but  they 
are  more  cleanly,  and  modern  conveniences  are  in- 
troduced with  due  regard  to  the  meagerness  of  the 
native  income;  there  is  a  more  industrious  type  of 
life,  especially  among  the  barbarous  peoples,  for  one 
of  the  things  that  Christianity  takes  to  them  is  in- 
centive to  work,  and  a  desire  for  more  of  the  utensils 
of  civilization.  The  heathen  home  is  merely  a  place 
to  get  shelter.  In  tropical  lands  much  of  the  cooking 
and  most  of  the  living  is  done  out  of  doors,  and  in  that 
is  the  best  protection  they  have  from  their  dwelling- 
places;  otherwise  all  would  surely  be  afflicted  with 
disease,  and  death  would  be  epidemic.  In  agricultural 
lands  the  animals  usually  live  under  the  same  roof 
with  their  owners;  man  and  beast  can  not  thus  dwell 
together  with  aught  but  injury  for  the  man.  The 
native  Christians  may  work  at  the  same  tasks,  follow 
the  same  general  customs,  receive  the  same  wage, 
and  practice  the  same  economic  arts  that  they  did 
in  their  old  life,  but  they  live  more  wholesomely  in 
the  midst  of  the  old  tasks  and  surroundings.  Their 
children  are  clothed  and  their  homes  places  of  peace; 
their  wages  are  kept  for  family  purposes  and  never 
wasted  on  personal  vices ;  their  homes  take  on  an  angle 
.of  uprightness  both  within  and  without;  the  streets 

103 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

are  cleaner  and  a  more  sanitary  manner  of  life  is  fol- 
lowed; their  wives  are  treated  with  kindness,  and  af- 
fection begins  to  root  in  their  hearts  where  all  too 
often  there  was  none  before;  they  love  peace  where 
before  discord  was  the  habit  of  their  daily  family 
intercourse ;  in  fact,  their  home  has  taken  the  likeness 
of  the  missionary  home,  their  village  bears  witness 
externally  to  the  internal  changes  in  their  minds  and 
hearts,  and  travelers  say  it  is  easy  to  tell  the  village 
where  Christian  influence  predominates.  It  is  a  liv- 
ing testimony  to  the  social  value  of  missions.  "It 
is  refreshing  to  see  the  clean  houses  and  villages  of 
the  Christians,  instead  of  the  filthy  heathen  hovels 
of  previous  years,"  said  Dr.  McKay. 

In  the  mission  home  the  family  find  their  chief 
delight  in  the  congenial  converse  of  the  table  around 
the  family  hearthstone.  The  pagan  family  knows 
little  of  family  counsel  or  mutual  conversation  about 
a  family  shrine,  such  as  the  missioner  makes  his 
board  and  hearth.  Rarely  does  a  Chinese  child 
ever  dine  with  both  father  and  mother.  The  father 
is  privileged  over  other  members  of  the  household, 
and  the  male  members  of  the  circle  are  accustomed 
to  eating  in  the  congenial  company  of  their  superior 
selves.  The  language  of  the  heathen  household  is 
anything  but  pure  and  refined.  Children  learn  talk 
that  put  the  blush  to  men's  faces,  and  the  customary 
quarreling  is  carried  from  the  house  into  the  street. 
The  father  holds  the  scepter  over  both  mother  and 
children,  and  the  mother-in-law  over  the  wives  of  her 
sons.  Arbitrariness  is  much  more  the  rule  than  kind- 
ness, and  the  result  is  a  bitterness  in  word  and  feeling 

104 


THE  HOME 

and  in  mutual  action  that  is  liable  to  result  in  blows. 
Until  this  day  instances  are  not  unknown  where  parents 
have  beaten  children  into  insensibility  and  even  sold 
them  deliberately  to  be  rid  of  them,  or  to  purchase 
opium.  The  Christian  home  reproves  this  sort  of  a 
family  life,  and  the  benign  example  of  Christian  af- 
fection and  peacefulness  arouse  in  many  hearts  a 
longing  for  the  better  way.  The  men  of  the  community 
come  to  respect  the  wife  of  the  missionary  because 
of  her  talents,  for  the  interest  she  takes  in  their  homes, 
and  because  they  see  her  respected  by  her  husband. 
Through  the  open  channels  of  this  regard  for  her, 
and  through  the  undeniable  argument  of  a  greater 
happiness  through  it,  many  who  before  treated  their 
women  with  scant  regard  or  only  conventional  af- 
fection, come  to  open  their  hearts  and  overcome  their 
ancient  customs  and  accord  her  a  real  love,  and  to 
surround  their  children  with  a  more  refined  and  whole- 
some moral  atmosphere.  The  tendency  is  well  fixed, 
both  in  China  and  India,  for  the  family  to  divide  into 
its  logical  units  and  each  married  couple  to  have  a 
separate  dwelling-place  and  a  division  of  income. 
Greater  privacy  is  being  guaranteed,  and  with  it  must 
come  the  more  dignified  manner  of  living  and  the  culti- 
vating of  those  personal  virtues  that  arise  from  a 
greater  sense  of  individuality  and  of  personal  rights. 
Thus  from  the  missionary's  home  radiate  sermons 
from  actions  and  an  atmosphere  that  is  conducive 
to  social  health.  Its  example  is  eloquent  to  the  very 
human  consciousness  of  its  neighbors,  and  its  exhorta- 
tions, though  mutely  spoken,  are  more  persuasive 
oftentime  than  an  articulate  message.     To  become  a 

105 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

neighbor  to  a  man  is  to  fulfill  the  law  of  service  toward 
him.  In  the  Christian  home  are  the  head  waters  of 
all  that  fructifies  the  rich  fields  of  civilization,  and  no 
greater  judgment  of  failure  could  be  pronounced  upon 
a  society  than  to  say,  as  has  been  said  of  heathenism, 
that  it  has  no  homes.  Ten  thousand  missionary 
homes  are  bearing  their  witness  on  the  mission  field, 
and  the  social  benefits  that  flow  from  that  witness 
are  mightier  than  words  can  tell;  there  is  no  statistic 
that  is  able  to  enumerate  the  unbounded  good  they 
are  bringing  to  the'  new  civilizations  that  spring  up 
wherever  they  are  founded. 


106 


CHAPTER  III 

Benevolence:  The  Heart  of  Social 
Progress 

1.    The  Evangel  of  Humanity. 

Benevolence  is  the  heart  of  social  progress.  It  is 
through  the  expanding  circles  of  sympathy  that  civil- 
ization evolves.  The  primitive  man  is  selfish;  it  is 
his  kinship  to  the  brute.  Sympathy  is  all  but  unknown 
to  him  except  as  it  reacts  very  directly  upon  his  own 
welfare.  But  mother  love  softens  the  heart  of  the 
rudest,  and  its  expansion  into  family  affection  widens 
the  circle  of  sympathy  and  broadens  unselfishness; 
it  is  nature's  first  instinct  of  sacrifice.  Mother  love 
expands  into  brother  love.  The  interwoven  interests 
of  family  merge  into  those  of  tribe,  clan,  neighborhood, 
and  nation,  and  finally  become  universal.  Every 
stage  of  civilization  manifests  some  measure  of  this 
larger  bond  of  common  interest.  China  is  to-day 
no  farther  advanced  than  was  the  world  to  which 
the  first  missionaries  went.  Africa  is  but  at  the  dawn 
of  human  evolution,  if  indeed  it  be  not  a  decadent 
continent  of  people.  Paton,  Hunt,  Geddie,  Williams, 
and  their  compeers  found  humanity  in  the  South  Pa- 
cific Seas  almost  devoid  of  the  instinct  of  sympathy. 
Japan  had  evolved  a  paternalistic  type  of  society, 
and  cared  for  the  suffering  with  more  effectiveness 

107 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

than  any  other  pagan  nation.  In  the  change  from 
the  old  to  the  new,  the  old  system  was  overthrown 
and  the  new  is  being  established,  substituting  national 
for  the  feudal  care  of  the  dependent.  The  Chinese, 
says  Arthur  Smith,  "display  an  indifference  to  the 
suffering  of  others  which  is  probably  not  to  be  matched 
in  any  other  civilized  country."  They  have  never 
evolved  more  than  a  family  type  of  sympathy,  except 
where  they  have  come  into  contact  with  Christianity. 
Their  naturally  fine  capacity  as  a  people  quickly 
yields  to  those  higher  compassions  that  are  native 
to  their  nature  but  have  never  been  cultivated.  In 
India  the  caste  to  which  one  belongs  is  alone  respon- 
sible for  him.  There  are  fifty  millions  of  low  caste 
and  out-caste  peoples  who  have  no  one  to  care  for 
them.  Paganism  has  no  deep  sympathies  and  the 
circles  of  human  responsibility  are  small.  Neither 
their  governments  nor  their  religions  furnish  such  a 
thing  as  real  philanthropy.  Old  Rome  fed  thousands 
at  the  public  granaries,  but  there  was  no  organized 
charity;  it  was  more  an  act  of  political  expediency 
than  of  public  benevolence.  In  many  Oriental  cities, 
including  the  Mohammedan,  there  are  small  insti- 
tutions supported  by  subscription  from  the  rich, 
but  they  are  few  in  number  and  so  poorly  managed 
that  they  count  for  little.  Even  in  Japan  the  amount 
of  public  relief  is  less  than  one  hundredth  as  much  per 
capita  as  it  is  in  America,  and  the  need  is  many  times 
as  great.  The  mark  of  progress  in  civilization  is  the 
breadth  of  its  interests.  The  "struggle  for  self"  gives 
over  increasingly  to  the  "struggle  for  others."  Pagan 
Rome  grew  great  by  the  growth  of  imperialism  and 

108 


BENEVOLENCE 

by  the  creation  of  a  few  great  through  their  power  over 
the  exploited  many;  but  its  luxury  and  heartlessness 
were  its  ruin.  In  the  fourth  century  poverty  was 
perhaps  the  greatest  it  has  ever  been  in  Western  civil- 
ization. In  the  midst  of  it  all  Christianity  grew  up 
with  marvelous  rapidity  through  its  benevolence  and 
its  appeal  to  the  common  man.  Rome  apotheosized 
wealth  and  power;  Christianity  worshiped  a  Carpenter 
who  had  "not  where  to  lay  his  head."  Rome's  di- 
vinity was  a  luxurious  and  dissipated  Caesar;  Chris- 
tianity's was  a  pure  and  humble  Nazarene.  Rome 
subdued  a  world  by  force  of  arms;  Christianity  by 
the  force  of  brotherly  love. 

The  non-Christian  world  is  poverty-stricken.  The 
Hon.  Chester  Holcomb  said  that  if  modern  American 
almshouses  were  to  be  erected  in  China  and  thrown 
open  to  all  who  would  come,  two-thirds  of  the  popula- 
tion would  be  at  their  doors,  because  what  they  would 
receive  there  would  be  so  much  better  than  what  they 
live  on  all  their  lives.  Bishop  Thoburn  says  that 
one-fourth  of  the  Hindu  people  live  without  enough 
to  nourish  their  bodies  properly,  and  that  millions 
are  always  on  the  borderland  of  starvation.  The 
wages  of  the  common  laborer  in  all  these  countries 
will  average  less  than  one-tenth  that  of  the  same 
toiler  in  our  own  land.  In  India  men  work  for  from 
six  to  twelve  cents  per  day,  and  women  at  from  three 
to  four.  In  Japan  wages  are  not  more  than  twice 
as  much,  and  in  China  they  are  no  better;  servants 
will  work  for  three  or  four  dollars  per  month  and  sup- 
port themselves.  The  average  for  school  teachers 
is  but  from  fifty  to  sixty  dollars  per  annum.     It  is 

109 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

not  enough  to  say  that  living  is  cheap.  It  is  not 
cheap  living,  but  a  low  standard  of  living  that  makes 
life  at  all  possible  to  ninety  per  cent  of  the  people  of 
the  pagan  world.  In  three  thousand  years  of  civiliza- 
tion, Japan,  India,  and  China  evolved  no  standard 
of  living  that  gave  them  title  to  human  prosperity, 
and  the  standard  of  living  is  the  mark  of  economic 
progress;  upon  it  hangs  the  possibility  of  all  other 
progress;  it  is  the  base  line  of  civilization. 

Where  there  is  so  little  margin  for  a  livelihood 
there  is  great  suffering  when  famine  comes.  In  the 
seventies  no  less  than  ten  million  died  in  the  Chinese 
famine.  India  made  little  progress  in  population 
until  England  stopped  the  awful  devastations  of  death 
that  came  with  her  drouths,  by  building  irrigating 
ditches  and  providing  public  relief  works  and  teaching 
the  farmers  how  to  conserve  their  lands;  in  one  famine 
she  spent  no  less  than  thirty  million  dollars  in  relief. 
Neither  India  nor  China  ever  made  any  preparation 
to  meet  nor  any  adequate  effort  to  relieve  these  awful 
holocausts  of  death.  "There  are  millions  more," 
said  a  Chinese  official  when  his  sympathy  was  asked 
for  these  famine  sufferers;  he  was  an  untutored  Mal- 
thusian.  In  India  one  province  suffers  while  another 
has  plenty,  but  there  is  no  connection  established  be- 
tween the  granaries  of  the  prosperous  district  and  the 
lazar  house  of  the  famine  ridden,  except  as  Christian 
charity  brings  the  price. 

Buddhist  priests  are  to-day  making  some  agita- 
tion for  charity  in  the  name  of  Gautama.  Like  Julian, 
the  apostate  emperor,  they  rally  their  coreligionists  with 
the  cry,   "It  is  a  scandal  that  the  Galileans  should 

110 


BENEVOLENCE 

support  the  destitute,  not  only  of  their  own  religion,  but 
of  ours."  The  Brahmans  care  for  the  sacred  cow,  but 
they  do  not  erect  hemes  for  orphans  or  asylums  for 
lepers.  Christianity  cares  for  a  million  each  year  in 
the  very  midst  of  these  pagan  faiths.  In  India  alone 
it  has  eight  thousand  orphan  and  famine  children  in 
its  homes  and  industrial  schools.  Where  the  pagan 
religions  do  any  charity  it  is  for  the  purpose  of  obtain- 
ing merit.  Brahmanism  denies  the  privilege  of  erect- 
ing institutions  because  the  merit  is  in  the  secrecy  of 
the  gift;  thus  a  very  small  coin  to  the  beggar  or  a 
bowl  of  rice  to  the  fakir  suffices.  Lecky  says  Chris- 
tianity's power  as  a  civilizing  factor  has  been  in  its 
"capacity  for  producing  a  disinterested  enthusiasm." 
He  says  the  Christian  religion  has  "done  more  to 
quicken  the  affections  of  mankind,  to  promote  pity, 
to  create  a  pure  and  merciful  ideal,  than  any  other 
influence  that  ever  acted  upon  the  world."  It  has 
ever  appealed  to  the  poor  and  needy  and  dispossessed 
of  the  earth,  and  from  them  has  created  the  rulers 
of  the  next  age.  Its  famine  children  go  from  their 
schools  to  create  a  new  type  of  home  and  industry, 
and  to  lead  with  a  new  and  benign  intelligence  in  the 
common  affairs  of  their  fellows.  It  lights  the  fires  of 
sympathy  in  humble  hearts  and  the  contagion  spreads 
from  their  humble  habitations  into  the  hearts  and 
homes  of  their  neighbors,  and  the  old  customs  of  cru- 
elty, callousness,  and  superstition  are  displaced  in 
society.  In  the  South  Seas  men  who  once  would  have 
robbed  and  eaten  the  shipwrecked,  have  been  known  to 
rescue  and  succor  them.  In  Dark  Africa  tribes  that 
were  ever  at  war  have  carried  relief  to  one  another 

111 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

in  time  of  distress.     In  the  far  North  peoples  who  once 
killed  their  aged  have  come  to  care  for  them  tenderly. 
Wherever  the  missionary  goes  he  lights  the  beacon 
fires  for  the  distressed  and  suffering,  and  offers  them 
hope  in  the  name  of  the  Christ  who  healed  the  sick, 
cleansed  the  lepers,  blessed  the  children,  befriended 
womankind,  and  preached  good  tidings  to  the  poor. 
There  are  some  practices  of  heathenism  that  are 
almost  too  cruel  and  revolting  to  seem  possible.     Can- 
nibalism is  yet  practiced  in  parts  of  Africa,  in  New 
Guinea,   and  in  several  islands  of  Micronesia.     The 
aborigines    of    Australia    were    found    indulging    the 
horrible   practice   as   late   as   1896.     In  many   places 
pioneer  missioners  have  lived  to  see  cannibal  chief- 
tains die  Christian.     One  young  worldling  visited  in 
the  South  Seas,  carrying  with  him  a  blase  sneer  for 
the  missionary.     He  was  shown  a  hollow  tree,  enclosing 
a  heap  of  several  hundred  stones,   and  told  by  his 
native  guide  that  each  one  represented  a  human  body 
that  had  been  served  before  the  late  chieftain,  and 
that  but  for  the  missionary  one  would  represent  him 
there  on  the  morrow.     Paton,  Geddie,  Hunt,  Chalmers, 
and  many  others  wrought  new  creations  among  can- 
nibal peoples  and  transformed  places  of  such  unspeak- 
able   savagery    into    islands    of    peace.     The    Fijians 
contributed  liberally  to  one  of  the  late  Indian  famines, 
and  are  to-day  the  best  church  goers  in  the  world, 
unless    it    be,    perhaps,    the    slave-hunting    tribes    of 
Uganda,  whom  Mackay  and  his  successors  converted 
into  disciples  of  brotherly  love.     Holcombe   tells  of 
the  horrible  manner  in  which  the  people  of  Peking 
disposed  of  their  dead  babies.     They  cared  for  them 

112 


BENEVOLENCE 

until  hope  grew  faint.  They  then  placed  them  upon 
the  door  step  and  awaited  the  issue;  if  they  died  they 
were  accounted  no  children  of  theirs;  in  the  early 
mornings  a  great  wagon  made  the  rounds,  gathering 
up  the  little  bodies,  and  they  were  sent  away  without 
funeral  or  tear.  In  parts  of  Africa  the  lepers  are  killed. 
The  Esquimaux  of  Alaska  were  found  making  a  holiday 
out  of  the  killing  of  their  aged.  The  beggars  of  Chi- 
nese cities  are  carted  out  for  the  dogs  to  eat,  or  left 
where  they  die.  Many  Hindus  carry  their  dying  out 
of  the  house  as  soon  as  death  seems  imminent,  and  if 
possible,  carry  them  to  the  banks  of  the  sacred  Ganges 
to  gasp  out  their  expiring  moments.  It  is  a  common 
custom  to  begin  funeral  preparations  before  life  is 
gone.  Paganism  lacks  the  finer  sentiments  even 
where  it  does  not  possess  the  most  gross.  Its  circle 
of  sympathy  is  small.  Christianity  takes  to  it  the 
message  of  universal  brotherhood  and  gives  it  a  heart 
for  humanity. 

2.     Clinical  Christianity. 

"All  missionary  work,  in  the  highest  sense,  must 
be  healing  work,"  said  the  indomitable  Mackay  of 
Uganda.  Mackay  used  medicine,  industrial  training, 
carpentry,  diplomatic  advice,  and  all  other  means 
that  opportunity  offered  to  break  his  way  into  the 
confidences  of  M'tesa  and  overcome  the  frightful 
cruelties  of  that  cruel  chieftain's  slave  traffic,  and 
the  even  more  frightful  superstitions  that  made  all 
other  evils  possible.  After  a  lifetime  in  Africa  the 
great  Frenchman,  Coillard,  wished  he  had  another 
life  that  he  might  study  medicine  and  spend  it  in  the 

8  113 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

Dark  Continent,  opening  fastened  doors,  and,  like 
Livingstone  before  him,  probe  roads  of  healing  into 
the  open  sores  of  Africa's  savagery. 

The  new  physiology  makes  the  body  sacred,  even 
as  Christ  did  when  he  declared  it  to  be  the  temple  of 
the  Spirit.  The  new  psychology  knits  mind  and  body 
up  together  in  such  manner  as  to  make  consideration 
of  one  impossible  without  a  knowledge  of  the  other. 
The  new  ethics  demands  the  sacredness  of  the  flesh 
as  a  means  to  the  holiness  of  the  soul,  and  our  under- 
standing of  Christianity,  in  these  latter  days,  leads  us 
to  see  that  there  is  not  only  no  antagonism  between 
spirit  and  body,  but  that  there  is  a  divine  relationship. 
Asceticism  revolted  against  the  frightful  immoralities 
of  base  paganism  and  swung  to  the  extreme  of  de- 
spising the  body,  but  we  find  that  not  emaciation  but 
emancipation  is  the  true  way  of  life.  Thus  we  seek, 
religiously,  to  free  ourselves  of  disease  and  to  live  a 
clean  and  wholesome  life,  and  we  find  in  good  hygiene 
one  of  the  ways  to  upright  living. 

Jesus  healed  as  he  preached.  Indeed,  there  is  as 
much  emphasis  given  in  the  synoptic  gospels  to  his 
healing  as  to  his  preaching.  The  deaf,  blind,  dumb, 
lame,  fevered,  epileptic,  insane,  all  received  his  merci- 
ful ministrations.  He  sought  out  the  suffering  and 
the  suffering  sought  out  him.  Multitudes  brought 
of  their  sick  that  he  might  touch  them  and  make  them 
well.  His  great-hearted  sympathy  went  out  in  com- 
passion in  the  divine  ministry  of  destroying  pain. 
It  was  his  care  for  the  suffering  of  bodily  ills  that  made 
him  known  above  all  as  the  man  of  compassion.  That 
greatest  of  all  encomiums  pronounced  upon  him,  de- 

114 


BENEVOLENCE 

scribing  him  as  one  who  went  about  doing  good,  was 
due  to  his  ministry  to  pain.  One  of  his  most  used, 
because  most  significant  titles,  that  of  the  Great  Phy- 
sician, comes  from  his  cure  of  physical  ills.  He  never 
conceived  of  his  gospel  being  preached  without  minis- 
tration to  the  physical  needs  of  the  poor  and  suffering. 
When  he  sent  out  his  disciples  for  their  itineraries, 
he  told  them  to  go  healing  and  preaching. 

The  masses  of  men  live  very  much  in  their  physical 
beings.  Not  many  are  able  to  arise  above  pain  and 
become  saints  and  poets  in  spite  of  it.  It  is  difficult 
to  be  both  a  sufferer  and  a  saint,  or  to  be  poor  and 
practice  the  refinements  of  Christianity.  That  it  is 
possible  is  unanswerable  testimony  to  the  spiritual 
power  of  a  true  faith,  but  Christ  did  not  intend  that 
poverty  and  suffering  were  to  be  made  cardinal  means 
to  righteousness.  He  intended  rather  that  through 
the  relief  of  them  Christianity  should  take  the  world. 
The  great  world  of  paganism  is  a  world  of  ignorance 
and  of  spiritual  numbness.  It  lives  in  the  flesh,  and 
finds  its  first  revelations  most  easily  by  relief  of  its 
pains.  "If  we  want,"  says  Dr.  Arthur  Lankaster, 
"to  write  the  teaching  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  in 
very  large  letters,  so  that  those  who  can  not  read 
theology  and  do  not  understand  science  or  philosophy 
can  read  it  very  easily,  the  best  way  of  doing  it,  whether 
it  be  for  an  individual,  a  village,  a  town,  a  district,  or 
a  nation,  is  to  start  medical  aid  for  the  poor."  "He 
is  not  from  America,  he  is  from  heaven,"  said  the  as- 
tonished Korean  courtiers  when  Dr.  Allen  stopped 
the  wounds  of  their  dying  crown  prince.  It  was  a 
sermon  without  words,  but  a  thousand  times  more 

115 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

eloquent  to  their  ears  than  could  any  have  been  in 
words.  To-day  all  Korea  is  listening  to  the  words  of 
the  evangelists.  He  may  throw  our  proffered  Bible 
aside,  said  Dr.  Williamson,  our  civilization  make  him 
all  the  more  a  materialist,  and  we  may  be  unable  to 
convince  him  that  we  are  not  preaching  for  the  sake 
of  the  salary,  but  heal  his  disease  and  ease  his  suffering 
and  he  is  eternally  grateful,  and  through  his  friend- 
ship for  you  will  learn  of  that  greater  friend.  Science 
can  be  cold  and  heartless  in  its  quest  of  mere  knowledge, 
but  science,  set  on  fire  with  compassion  for  men,  is 
one  of  God's  means  of  revealing  himself  to  those  who 
are  dumb  to  all  other  appeals. 

Medicine  takes  a  new  humanitarianism  to  the 
peoples  who  have  not  known  the  sacred  art  of  sym- 
pathy. The  Hindu  religion  will  lead  its  devotees 
to  swing  themselves  by  hooks  in  the  back,  or  sit  for 
days  on  beds  of  spikes,  or  to  spend  $50,000  on  the 
wedding  of  a  pair  of  sacred  monkeys,  but  it  never 
built  a  hospital.  "In  all  my  classical  reading,"  said 
Professor  Packard,  "I  never  met  with  the  idea  of  an 
infirmary  or  hospital,  except  for  sick  cats  in  Egypt." 
Certain  sects  of  Hindu  devotees  will  not  sit  down 
without  first  brushing  the  earth  lest  they  destroy  some 
insect  life,  villages  will  see  their  children  die  by  serpent 
and  tiger  and  refuse  to  kill  the  beast  because  its  life 
is  sacred,  but  women  suffer  untold  miseries  when  chil- 
dren are  born,  little  ones  starve  by  the  tens  of  thousands 
in  famine  times,  beggars  perish  and  rot  by  the  wayside, 
for  their  faith  has  taught  them  no  such  ideas  of  the 
value  of  a  human  life  as  to  lead  them  to  organize  chari- 
ties, or  build  asylums,  or  create  systematic  forms  of 

116 


BENEVOLENCE 

relief.  Multitudes  suffer  from  preventable  disease, 
but  there  is  no  adequate  art  devised  for  their  healing, 
and  even  such  physicians  as  they  have  will  refuse 
them  aid  because  they  are  too  poor  to  pay.  Medi- 
cine, in  the  hands  of  a  missionary,  opens  to  them  new- 
visions  of  the  sacredness  of  life  itself.  The  native 
Christians  will  care  for  the  poorest  and  the  foulest 
of  their  fellow-men,  where  before  they  would  have 
passed  them  by  with  no  thought,  or  mayhap  joined 
the  crowd  in  jibes  at  their  sad  predicament.  It  was 
no  different  among  the  ancient  pagans.  "  Among  the 
millionaires  of  Rome  there  was  not  one  who  founded 
a  hospice  for  the  poor  or  a  hospital  for  the  sick,"  said 
Dr.  Dollinger.  They  had  culture  and  philosophy 
and  art,  but  they  had  no  adequate  humanity.  Their 
lives  were  ordered  from  the  standpoint  of  selfishness. 
The  most  learned,  and  those  who  speculated  profoundly 
about  the  soul  and  its  future,  could,  with  no  pang, 
consign  the  multitudes  to  a  place  beside  animals  and 
argue  that  they  were  born  to  be  slaves — men  who,  by 
their  very  nature,  could  never  realize  on  a  human 
inheritance. 

Of  modern  religions  the  most  compassionate  is 
Buddhism.  There  is  record  of  a  Buddhist  hospital 
three  hundred  years  before  Christ,  but  that  religion  is 
so  profoundly  individualistic  that  it  soon  lost  all  power 
for  real  charity.  Its  main  sanction  was  that  of  merit 
for  self,  and  until  men  forgot  self  and  self's  reward 
they  are  never  of  great  value  to  benevolence.  From 
the  first  Christianity  practiced  a  self-forgetful  charity, 
and  began  to  build  institutions  for  the  public  care  of 
the  sick  by  the  end  of  the  first  thousand  years  of  its 

117 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

history.  Before  that  they  had  received  care  in  mon- 
asteries and  at  private  hands,  and  the  law  had  taken 
account  of  them  from  the  time  it  began  to  take  account 
of  Christian  principles.  It  is  under  Christian  govern- 
ments that  philanthropic  institutions  are  builded  to- 
day, and  those  of  Japan  and  the  few  instances  in  China 
are  due  to  Christianity's  having  come  to  teach  the 
way. 

Dr.  Gulick  quotes  a  noted  Japanese  of  the  era  of 
the  first  Catholic  missions  in  that  land  as  saying  that 
"people  contribute  to  the  temple,  but  never  before 
was  it  heard  that  a  temple  contributed  to  the  help  of 
the  people."  Medicine  takes  a  new  conception  of 
religion  in  its  enforcement  of  the  missionary,  and  re- 
duces the  precept  to  example  in  a  manner  that  can  not 
be  misunderstood  by  the  most  ignorant  and  prejudiced 
of  superstitious  minds.  "Missionary  medicine  has 
not  exhausted  its  influence  when  it  has  healed  the  sick 
one,"  says  Dr.  Williamson  in  his  excellent  little  volume 
on  "The  Healing  of  the  Nations;"  "it  reaches  round 
and  exerts  its  power  on  a  larger  world  than  that  gathered 
in  the  hospital  waiting  room.  It  pioneers  education; 
it  stimulates  scientific  methods;  it  inculcates  sanitary 
principles  and  introduces  plague  precautions  and  deals 
with  epidemics.  Again  and  again  it  becomes  of  po- 
litical importance;  its  weight  is  thrown  on  the  side  of 
benevolent  undertakings,  while  all  the  time  it  is  raising 
in  estimation  the  value  of  human  life  and  the  sacred- 
ness  of  womanhood.  These  are  stars  of  the  first  mag- 
nitude which  shine  brightly  in  the  firmament  of  Chris- 
tian Sociology."  The  itinerary  of  the  medical  mis- 
sionary   resembles    the    evangelistic   journeys    of    the 

118 


TT'oords,  Syrians,  and  Moslems  in  a  Missionary  Clinic.     II- 
■**-     lustrates  the  manner  in  which  Christian  benevolence  breaks 
down  prejudice. 


A  Chinese  orphan  girl  before  and  after  treatment  in  a  mission- 
ary hospital.  This  is  a  parable  of  Christian  benevo- 
lence on  the  mission  field. 


BENEVOLENCE 

Great  Physician.  Men  come  miles  to  meet  him  and  his 
roadway  is  the  scene  of  many  pitiful  appeals;  he  touches 
one  here  and  another  there  and  leaves  his  healing  balm 
in  a  hundred  hands  every  day;  he  healeth  their  dis- 
eases and  to  every  one  gives  the  greater  prescription 
for  the  cure  of  the  soul.  His  dispensary  and  hospital 
waiting-room  are  like  the  evenings  at  the  lakeside  in 
Galilee,  where  the  multitudes  brought  their  sick  and 
afflicted  that  the  Great  Physician  might  touch  them. 
There  come  the  rich  and  poor  to  mingle  side  by  side, 
for  a  great  need  doth  make  brothers  of  them  all,  and 
all  receive,  that  through  the  healing  of  their  bodies 
their  souls  may  be  freed. 

3.     The  Devastations  of  Ignorance. 

There  is  no  science  of  medicine  in  the  non-Chris- 
tian world.  In  savage  lands,  and  often  in  the  Orient, 
the  profession  is  mingled  with  the  black  arts  and  the 
profession  of  witchery.  In  Africa  it  is  in  the  hands 
of  women  who  deal  in  charlatanry,  or  of  the  medicine 
man,  who  is  adept  in  magic  and  generally  the  greatest 
fraud  and  scoundrel  in  the  tribe.  He  "smells"  out 
the  trouble  with  all  due  ceremony  and  locates  it  in 
the  ill  will  of  some  enemy  or  the  displeasure  of  some 
spirit.  His  cure  is  one  of  propitiation  for  the  offended 
spirit,  or  of  "ordeal"  for  the  enemy  who  has  done  be- 
witching. "Evil  eye"  is  the  fertile  cause  of  many  of 
the  diseases  of  superstition.  It  hedges  life  around 
with  unending  regulation,  and  makes  living  a  terror. 
It  indicts  many  an  innocent  person  with  the  crime 
of  bewitching  and  is  the  source  of  untold  enmity  and 
of  punishment  that  is  undeserved.     In  China  the  phy- 

119 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

sicians  have  many  simple  herbal  remedies  that  ob- 
servation has  taught  them  to  be  useful,  but  they  are 
so  mixed  with  the  rites  of  superstition,  or  the  pre- 
scriptions of  a  credulous  ignorance,  that  they  are 
largely  deprived  of  their  virtue  in  actual  practice. 
All  ignorance  is  dangerous,  but  nowhere  does  it  bring 
more  direct  suffering  than  in  the  practice  of  medicine. 
A  lady  physician  in  Persia  tells  of  seeing  a  native 
quack  burn  open  the  frontal  fissure  in  the  head  of  an 
infant  that  the  evil  spirit  might  escape.  Another  in 
Korea  tells  of  seeing  a  native  practitioner  burn  heaps 
of  brown  powder  on  the  breast  of  a  child  and  follow 
it  by  thrusting  a  large  needle  through  each  foot,  the 
palms  of  the  hands,  the  thumb  joints,  the  lips,  and  then 
beneath  the  nose.  A  doctor  in  India  tells  of  a  mother 
who  brought  a  child  to  him  for  treatment  of  the  eyes, 
saying  she  had  faithfully  followed  the  prescription 
every  day  for  two  months;  it  was  to  put  a  powder  of 
charcoal  and  donkey's  tooth  into  the  eye.  For  sup- 
puration it  is  customary  to  daub  tar  or  some  other 
adhesive  over  the  place  where  the  puss  should  exude; 
the  agony  that  follows  can  well  be  imagined.  One 
Chinese  cure  for  hysteria  is  to  put  bugs  up  the  nose  of 
the  victim.  Rheumatism  is  often  treated  by  cutting 
a  gash  over  the  aching  joint  and  rubbing  cayenne 
pepper  into  the  wound,  which  is  then  bound  up.  The 
native  Chinese  quack  will  thrust  a  long,  rusty  needle 
into  the  affected  part,  to  allow  the  evil  spirit  to  escape 
and  then  burn  the  wound  to  heal  it.  The  liver  is 
looked  upon  as  the  source  of  many  ills  and  the  people 
are  much  given  to  stomach  trouble;  both  organs  as 

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BENEVOLENCE 

well  as  the  lungs  receive  the  wicked  needle  when  af- 
fected. Gongs  are  beaten  to  drive  away  the  demons, 
and  the  most  hideous  noises  are  raised  where  good 
treatment  demands  quiet.  Many  crowd  around  and 
touch  with  their  filthy  hands  and  clothes,  when  iso- 
lation is  demanded  by  aseptic  necessity.  Dr.  Keeler, 
of  Changli,  tells  of  one  man  who  came  to  him  with 
four  hundred  punctures  of  the  Chinese  needle  in  the 
spine  and  thighs.  Hindu  mothers  will  be  confined  to  a 
dirty  hut  for  days  after  the  birth  of  their  children  and 
compelled  to  go  without  either  food  or  water,  and  then 
be  given  a  cold  bath.  One  Chinaman  had  tried  to  cure 
dyspepsia  by  a  two  years'  course  of  drinking  daily 
a  cup  of  ground  stone  and  water;  he  had  taken  forty 
pounds  off  a  grindstone,  but  was  uncured.  It  is  not 
simply  the  suffering  that  is  uncured,  but  that  which 
is  caused  in  the  use  of  ignorance  and  superstition,  that 
cries  out  for  a  scientific  medical  profession  in  pagan 
lands. 

The  native  practitioner  has  no  education  for  his 
work  and  is  quite  as  liable  to  be  the  most  ignorant  and 
unsuccessful  man  of  the  community  as  any  ether. 
There  is  no  knowledge  of  anatomy  and  little  of  materia 
medica.  Dissection  is  unheard  of  and  would  be  looked 
upon  with  horror  in  the  Orient.  The  Chinese  believe 
there  are  five  tubes  leading  from  the  mouth  to  the 
stomach,  and  that  both  lungs  are  on  one  side.  The 
Hindus  say  there  are  nine  hundred  bones  in  the  human 
body.  There  is  no  adequate  diagnosis;  it  is  largely  a 
matter  of  guess  work  or  of  an  attempt  to  locate  the 
demon.     Their  prescriptions  are  fearfully  and  wonder- 

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SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

fully  made.     Here  is  a  sample  as  reported  by  a  mission- 
ary physician: 

Powdered  snake 2  parts 

Wasps  and  their  nests 1  part 

Centipedes 6  parts 

Scorpions 4  parts 

Toads 20  parts 

Grind  thoroughly,  mix  with  honey,  and 

make  into  pills. 
Dose,  two  to  be  taken  four  times  a  day. 

Tiger's  bones  are  a  sovereign  remedy  for  weakness 
and  for  cowardice,  because  the  tiger  is  strong  and  brave. 
Bugs,  beetles,  flies,  bats,  and  lizards  are  common 
remedies.  In  extreme  cases  in  China  the  flesh  of  a 
son  or  daughter  has  been  prescribed;  it  would  be  good 
for  the  child  as  well  as  the  parent,  for  it  would  thereby 
learn  filial  obedience.  In  savage  lands  charms  are 
used,  drums  beaten,  horns  blown,  and  various  devices 
resorted  to  for  the  overcoming  of  the  demon.  Some 
of  the  blood  of  the  patient  may  be  extracted  and  given 
to  an  animal  that  he  may  carry  the  spirit  away  and 
get  the  benefit  of  its  residence.  It  may  be  hoodooed 
into  the  anatomy  of  some  special  enemy,  or  it  may  be 
extracted  by  the  legerdemain  of  the  medicine  man 
and  held  up  to  the  view  of  wondering  relatives  in  the 
form  of  a  bug  or  snake  or  some  small  varmint  which 
he  has  deftly  extracted  from  his  sleeve. 

The  death-rate  of  children  is  appalling  in  lands  that 
have  no  scientific  medicament.  The  rate  for  little 
ones  of  one  year  and  under  is  twice  as  great  in  Cal- 
cutta as  it  is  in  London;  Calcutta  is  one  of  the  most 

122 


BENEVOLENCE 

modern  of  Oriental  cities  and  London  one  of  the  most 
congested  of  those  in  the  Occident.  The  normal 
death-rate  for  non-Christian  lands  is  twice  that  of 
Christian  countries.  It  would  be  much  worse  but  for 
the  habit  semi-barbarous  peoples  have  of  living 
out  of  doors.  In  Asia  the  masses  drink  hot  tea  to 
the  exclusion  of  water  to  such  an  extent  that  they 
are  saved  from  the  ravages  of  the  germ-laden  streams 
and  ponds  to  which  the  majority  repair  for  use  of 
kitchen  and  washtub. 

Smallpox  has  decimated  islands  in  the  South  Seas 
and  taken  one-half  the  populations  in  Oriental  com- 
munities; it  was  thought  to  be  the  devastation  of 
demons;  one-half  the  deaths  in  Korea  are  through  it. 
The  United  States  has  banished  it  from  its  realm,  so 
far  as  epidemics  are  concerned,  by  the  use  of  vaccina- 
tion, and  our  physicians  fear  measles  more  than  they 
do  the  once  dreaded  scourge  of  smallpox;  but  it  de- 
stroys with  all  its  terrors  where  cleanliness  is  not  a 
virtue  and  there  is  no  knowledge  of  the  nature  cf  dis- 
ease and  its  transmitting  qualities.  In  the  city  of 
Canton  the  population  seems  to  be  a  pox-marked 
people,  as  if  it  were  a  racial  peculiarity.  One  meets 
the  disease  in  all  its  forms  on  the  street  in  mid-day. 
The  even  more  terrible  scourges  of  cholera  and  the 
bubonic  plague  have  worked  their  way  unhindered 
until  in  very  recent  years,  and  the  measures  taken 
now  are  the  result  of  the  work  of  the  medical  mission- 
ary, except  perhaps  in  the  case  of  India.  "How  is  it 
that  you  Christians  do  not  take  the  plague?"  said  an 
intelligent  Chinaman,  "we  have  had  processions  and 
fire-crackers,  and  made  presents  to  our  gods,  but  all 

123 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

in  vain;  we  are  dying  by  the  hundreds."  A  village 
in  India  recently  filled  the  trees  about  its  environs  with 
the  bodies  of  decapitated  dogs,  that  the  spirits  might 
be  frightened  away  as  they  came  to  bring  the  plague. 
In  Tibet  the  heroic  expedient  of  burning  the  poor  first 
victims  of  smallpox  is  sometimes  resorted  to.  Cholera 
is  one  of  the  most  easily  avoided  of  epidemics.  It  can 
be  conveyed  only  through  a  very  specific  contamina- 
tion, and  one  that  endangers  no  one  where  every  one  is 
cleanly.  Dr.  Osgood  says  that  60%  of  the  diseases 
the  medical  missionary  meets  are  those  due  to  uncleanli- 
ness.  There  is  no  knowledge  of  sanitation  nor  of  dis- 
ease germs.  An  Oriental  city  smells  with  the  seventy- 
odd  smells  Coleridge  found  in  old  Cologne.  The  nasal 
organs  of  the  East  are  benumbed.  Sewage  is  dumped 
in  the  street  and  left  for  dogs  to  eat.  Stagnant  water 
stands  before  houses  and  in  village  streets.  Drain- 
age is  unknown  except  where  civilization  has  first  gone. 
Light  is  not  one  of  the  household  commodities  and  fresh 
air  is  not  prized  for  its  own  sake.  A  medical  missionary 
in  Persia  says  that  his  patients  fear  both  open  windows 
and  light.  Mecca  is  a  menace  to  all  India  and  Eastern 
Asia;  contagion  spreads  from  almost  every  pilgrimage. 
The  pilgrims  are  filthy  and  huddle  in  crowded  quarters 
while  in  the  sacred  city.  Whatever  happens  is  by  the 
will  of  Allah,  and  precautions  are  scorned.  The  Lancet 
gives  an  incident  that  illustrates  the  attitude  of  a 
Moslem  mind  toward  hygienic  regulations.  The 
French  Government  desired  to  obtain  certain  informa- 
tion about  Moslem  cities  for  the  use  of  its  colonial 
office.     The    following    questions    were    sent    to    the 

124 


BENEVOLENCE 

ruling  Pasha  of  Damascus,  and  the  answers  here  given 
were  returned: 

"What  is  the  death-rate  per  thousand  in  your 
principal  city?" 

Ans.  "In  Damascus  it  is  the  will  of  Allah  that 
all  should  die;  some  die  old,  some  die  young." 

"Are  the  supplies  of  drinking  water  sufficient  and 
of  good  quality?" 

Ans.  "From  the  remotest  period  no  one  has  died 
of  thirst." 

"Make  general  remarks  on  the  hygienic  condition 
of  your  city." 

Ans.  "Since  Allah  sent  us  Mohammed,  his 
prophet,  to  purge  the  world  with  fire  and  sword, 
there  has  been  a  vast  improvement.  And  now,  my 
lamb  of  the  West,  cease  your  questioning.  Man 
should  not  bother  himself  about  matters  that  concern 
only  God." 

Perhaps  no  tragedy  of  ignorance  is  greater  than 
that  of  the  lepers  and  the  insane  among  non-scientific 
peoples.  As  in  Biblical  times,  the  insane  are  looked 
upon  as  possessed  with  demons  and  are  turned  out  to 
wander;  they  are  shunned  as  were  the  lepers  who  had 
to  cry,  "unclean,  unclean, "  at  the  approach  of  any  one. 
Cases  are  known  of  them  being  walled  up  until  death 
brought  release.  Violent  cases  are  bound  down  and 
left  with  an  occasional  morsel.  Refractory  ones  are 
beaten,  and  the  custom  generally  is  to  accord  them 
brutal  treatment.  On  the  other  hand,  some  peoples 
look  upon  them  as  inspired.  Demon  worshipers 
stand  in  awe  -*£  them,  and  their  sayings  are  regarded 

125 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

as  divinations.  In  all  the  non-Christian  world  there 
is  no  record  of  a  single  infirmary  for  their  protection 
or  cure,  except  as  the  missionary  gives  it.  Lepers 
meet  a  universal  fate  of  isolation,  with  no  hope,  es- 
pecially after  the  disease  is  marked  or  known  by  others. 
It  may  be  hidden  by  the  poor  victim  until  he  has  in- 
occulated  many  others,  for  leprosy,  like  many  other 
transmittable  diseases,  is  infectious  rather  than 
contagious. 

Blindness  is  one  of  the  most  universal  ills  of  pagan 
lands.  There  are  a  million  blind  in  India  and  China 
alone.  Little  babes  are  bound  to  the  back  or  over  the 
hip  of  the  mother  or  a  little  sister,  and  carried  about 
with  their  tender  eyes  exposed  to  the  tropical  sun. 
Uncleanness  is  the  prolific  source  of  blindness  as  of 
all  other  diseases.  The  habit  of  having  the  barber 
cleanse  the  eyes  is,  in  China,  the  source  of  much  trouble, 
for  he  wipes  the  tender  organ  with  his  dirty  and  con- 
taminated apron.  Again,  lack  of  precaution  spreads 
the  maladies.  Necrosis  of  the  feet,  through  foot- 
binding,  causes  untold  agonies  among  China's  girls. 
Suffering  of  all  kinds  drives  multitudes  to  the  relief 
that  opium  can  give.  The  deadly  pipe  habit  is  growing 
rapidly  in  India.  There  are  numerous  other  specific 
ills  that  space  does  not  allow  named,  but  whose  pres- 
ence, and  the  devastation  they  wreak,  can  be  laid  up 
to  habits  of  uncleanness  and  to  ignorance  of  the  nature 
of  disease.  Paganism  has  many  diseases,  but  no  ade- 
quate remedies  for  them.  It  has  a  penury  as  great 
as  its  other  suffering,  but  it  has  neither  hospital, 
scientific  medicine,  nor  a  charity  that  seeks  the  things 
of  others  as  one's  own. 

126 


BENEVOLENCE 

4.     One  Multiplied  by  a  Thousand. 

In  China  there  is  but  one  scientific  physician  to 
every  million  souls.     In   the   United   States   there  is 
one  to  every  six  hundred.     If  there  were  but  two  doc- 
tors in  Chicago,  and  one  in  St.  Louis,  we  would  have 
some  idea  of  the  needs,  of  China  and  of  the  stupendous- 
ness  of  the  medical  missioner's  work.     In  all  paganism 
there  is  only  one  trained  physician  to  every  two  and 
one-half    million    people.     The    average    number    of 
people  within  the  radius  of  a  mission  station  is  prob- 
ably twenty-five  thousand.     There  are  eight  hundred 
medical  missionaries.     Thus  they  are  able   to  reach 
in  some  adequate  way  about  twenty  million  people. 
Their  work  spreads  far  beyond  their  stations,  however. 
Patients  have  come  journeys  of  weeks  to  receive  heal- 
ing.     When  Dr.  Dye  went  to  the  Congo  there  was 
not  another  physician  in  a  radius  of  eight  hundred 
miles    of    Bolenge.     Men    came    four    hundred    miles 
to  his  clinic.     It  is  no  uncommon  thing  for  them  to 
come   from   one   hundred   to   one   hundred   and   fifty 
miles.     In   China  many  instances  are  cited   of  them 
wheeling  a  member  of  the  family  a  week's  journey  in 
the  native  barrow  that  they  might  get  the  benefit  of  a 
surgical  operation.     Three  million  patients  are  treated 
annually   in   the   eleven   hundred   hospitals   and   dis- ' 
pensaries.     A  day's  treatments  will  often  include  from 
one  hundred  to  two  hundred  patients.     One  blind  man 
who  was  cured  went  home  and  sent  twelve  blind  neigh- 
bors to  the  physician.      They  came  as  of  old,  one  lead- 
ing the  other.     Another  put  twenty  into  a  boat  and 
had  them  taken  to  his  benefactor.      Every  man  helped 

127 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

becomes  an  emissary  of  healing.  The  benevolence 
of  the  mission  station  reaches  out  for  vast  distances, 
and  everywhere  it  goes  it  strikes  a  blow  at  the  super- 
stition of  demon  worship  and  the  black  ignorance  of 
the  natives. 

The  work  done  by  some  single  medical  missionaries 
and  at  certain  hospitals  all  but  defies  credulity.  The 
greatest  practitioners  and  the  most  adequately 
equipped  of  the  great  hospitals  at  home  do  not  equal  it. 
In  fifteen  years  Dr.  Elizabeth  Reifsnyder,  of  Shang- 
hai, ministered  to  more  than  200,000  patients.  Dr. 
Butchart,  of  Lu  Cheo  Fu,  is  at  present  administering 
35,000  treatments  annually.  Dr.  John  Kerr,  of 
Canton,  attended  over  700,000  individuals  in  his  work 
as  a  good  physician  in  China,  and  performed  40,000 
operations.  The  two  hospitals  in  Canton  give  112,000 
treatments  annually.  In  Swatow  one  missionary 
hospital  receives  into  its  beds  25,000  sick  each  year. 
The  two  Canton  institutions  have  ministered  to  more 
than  1,250,000  persons  since  their  establishment. 
But  figures  do  not  tell  the  story;  they  must  be  touched 
with  imagination  to  convey  any  adequate  picture 
of  the  work  really  done.  One  must  see  the  long  jour- 
neys by  foot,  boat,  barrow,  and  mule-back  to  get  to 
the  missionary  station,  and  think  of  the  suffering  en- 
dured under  these  primitive  means  of  locomotion.  He 
must  picture  the  long  and  painful  treatment  endured 
often  at  the  hands  of  the  native  quack  before  enough 
light  reaches  the  poor  sufferer  to  permit  his  prejudice, 
or  that  of  his  relatives,  to  send  him  to  the  foreigner. 
He  must  paint  the  scene  in  the  waiting-room,  the  ul- 
cerated limbs,  the  great  tumors,  the  swollen  bodies, 

128 


BENEVOLENCE 

the  blind  eyes,  the  wan  and  ghastly  yellow  faces,  the 
torture  of  little  children,  the  patient  suffering  of  aged 
women  whose  whole  life  has  been  one  of  such  hardship 
that  pain  no  longer  puzzles  them.  There  the  rich 
sit  in  their  silks  by  the  side  of  the  beggar  in  his  rags, 
and  all  look  with  the  one  human  hope  to  the  door  into 
which  they  will  soon  enter,  half  in  fear,  half  in  awe, 
for  the  doctor  seems  to  many  of  them  to  be  a  miracle 
worker. 

But  the  medical  man's  work  is  not  told  even  in 
the  stupendous  work  he  does  with  the  multitudes  that 
seek  him,  once  he  has  won  his  way  through  the  maze 
and  mire  of  superstition.  He  goes  into  the  broader 
field  of  social  welfare  and  grapples  with  questions  of 
sanitation,  hygiene,  and  the  establishment  of  govern- 
mental institutions  for  doing  the  work  he  is  able  only 
to  begin  doing.  Dr.  Berry  taught  a  class  of  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty  young  men  while  doing  the  work  of 
a  strenuous  medical  missionary  in  Japan.  Dr.  Hep- 
burn was  the  founder  of  medical  science  in  Japan,  and 
added  to  his  missionary  labors,  not  only  instruction  for  a 
future  profession  in  the  empire,  but  every  form  of  phil- 
anthropic effort,  and  was  decorated  by  the  Mikado 
for  his  gifts  to  the  social  welfare  of  the  nascent  nation. 
Dr.  Mackenzie  founded  the  first  medical  school  in 
China,  at  Tientsin.  The  mother  of  Li  Hung  Chang 
gave  him  the  first  thousand  dollars  ever  given  by  a  na- 
tive for  Christian  effort.  The  famous  viceroy  him- 
self aided  in  all  Mackenzie's  work.  The  college  is 
to-day  under  native  auspices  and  the  pioneer  mis- 
sionary's pupils  are  on  its  staff.  The  first  lesson  of 
the  native  doctor  is  to  learn  the  location  of  the  two 

9  129 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

hundred  places  where  punctures  may  be  made  with 
his  long  needle,  without  killing.  In  the  modern  mis- 
sionary medical  school  he  learns  to  perform  surgical 
operations  with  skill.  Japanese  surgeons  are  among 
the  famous  operators  of  the  world  to-day,  and  China's 
will  be  in  another  generation.  Dr.  Tenny  tells  of 
thirty-two  medical  schools  under  missionary  auspices. 
As  in  Japan,  so  it  will  soon  be  in  China,  the  missionary 
will  have  established  the  idea  of  a  scientific  medical 
profession,  and  the  nation  will  adequately  endow  its 
own  schools  for  the  training  of  a  native  profession  in 
modern  medicine  and  surgery. 

The  medical  missionary  writes  pamphlets  and  books 
for  public  instruction  and  scatters  them  broadcast. 
His  field  is  wide  for  this  kind  of  work,  for  the  ills  of 
the  land  are  more  than  one-half  preventable  by  ordi- 
nary cleanliness  and  hygienic  living.  He  studies 
climatic  and  other  diseases  peculiar  to  his  chosen 
field,  and  thus  adds  to  the  sum  total  of  medical  knowl- 
edge. He  learns  the  pharmacopoeia  of  his  district, 
that  the  people  may  have  the  benefit  of  cheaper  medi- 
cines and  the  world  the  benefit  of  any  discoveries  that 
may  be  made.  He  prepares  the  public  mind  for  deal- 
ing with  epidemics  and  plagues,  by  lecturing  and 
writing  on  ways  to  prevent  them  and  means  for  dealing 
with  them  when  they  come.  Governments  listen  to 
this  instruction  on  such  matters,  and  his  power  is 
multiplied  by  thousands.  He  establishes  plague- 
camps  and  isolates  all  who  will  submit,  that  they  may 
not  be  a  menace  to  others,  and  may  get  the  cure  that 
pure  air,  water,  and  food  will  bring,  together  with 
his  treatments.     In  Kashmir  one  physician  sent  the 

130 


BENEVOLENCE 

school  boys  out  with  tracts  when  the  plague  threatened, 
and  they  were  purchased  and  heeded  by  hundreds. 
He  introduces  vaccination  and  has  persuaded  the 
government  of  Siam,  through  its  enlightened  late 
ruler,  Chulalongkorn,  to  make  it  compulsory;  to-day 
every  child  in  Siam  and  Laos  is  vaccinated  just  as  he 
is  in  America.  One  missionary  station  cared  for  more 
than  10,000,  and  Drs.  Adamson  and  Braddock,  of  the 
Baptist  Mission,  superintended  the  vaccination  of 
200,000  in  one  year.  He  introduces  modern  surgical 
instruments,  and  many  of  the  better  native  doctors 
learn  both  to  use  them  for  simple  operations  and  to 
adopt  his  simpler  remedies  in  their  practice.  Anti- 
septics, anesthetics,  clinical  thermometers,  the  art 
of  nursing,  and  instruments  for  a  more  scientific  diag- 
nosis are  all  contributed  by  him  to  the  better  care  and 
cure  of  the  multitudes  who  are  tortured  with  many 
irritating  little  ills  due  to  their  unhygienic  living,  and 
by  many  major  evils  that  grow  out  of  neglect  or  mal- 
practice. In  the  late  plague  in  China  he  induced  the 
authorities  to  establish  quarantines,  and  made  inos- 
culations that  helped  to  get  control  of  the  situation. 
He  convinces  authorities  of  the  benefits  of  the  disin- 
fectant and  the  necessity  of  the  sewer,  and  in  every 
way  multiplies  his  force  by  enlisting  newly  enlightened 
public  sentiment.  Such  work  is  a  task  of  a  lifetime, 
but  once  done,  it  is  done  forever. 

The  medical  missionary  is  no  longer  needed  in 
Japan,  except  as  he  is  needed  in  our  city  slums  and 
among  the  poor.  In  another  generation  or  two  this 
will  be  true  of  China  and  every  land  that  has  begun 
in  earnest  the  work  of  public  education.-     It  was  a 

131 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

millennium  before  the  church  received  the  help  of 
governments  in  the  tasks  of  social  welfare,  such  as 
equipping  hospitals,  the  care  of  the  poor,  the  building 
of  asylums,  and  the  instruction  of  the  youth.  She 
must  yet  do  much  of  it,  but  the  more  rapidly  society 
takes  over  the  task,  the  better  is  the  work  of  the  church 
done  in  bringing  in  the  Kingdom  of  God.  The  govern- 
ments in  mission  fields  have  the  example  of  those  of 
Christendom  and  will  move  more  rapidly.  Japan  is 
in  the  lead,  but  there  is  no  adequate  institutional 
equipment  there  yet.  China  is  beginning  such  work, 
and  her  statesmen  acknowledge  the  debt  of  the  nation 
to  the  missionary  for  showing  them  the  way.  Dr. 
John  Kerr  established  the  first  infirmary  for  the  insane 
in  all  China  within  the  last  decade.  Dr.  Berry  is  the 
father  of  prison  reform  in  Japan;  it  is  woefully  inade- 
quate yet,  but  the  work  of  native  Christians,  like 
Haro,  Ito,  Tomeoka,  and  Oinue,  has  done  much.  Dr. 
Murray  established  the  first  school  for  the  blind  in 
China ;  his  work  is  duplicated  by  several  other  missions 
to-day,  but  there  is  little  by  any  but  the  Christians. 
In  India,  with  its  two  hundred  years  of  white  rule, 
only  one  in  twenty  is  yet  reached  by  scientific  medicine. 
Something  more  is  needed  than  external  rule.  The 
missionary  furnishes  the  desire  and  arouses  the  dis- 
content.    The  teacher  is  more  powerful  than  the  ruler. 

5.    Conquest  at  the  Point  of  the  Lancet. 

"China  was  opened  to  the  gospel  at  the  point 
of  the  lancet,"  said  the  pioneer,  Dr.  Peter  Parker. 
"A  cure,  to  their  eyes,  is  the  proof  of  our  apostleship," 
said  the  veteran  Coillard.     Dr.  Allen  was  denied  op- 

132 


N- 


alive  Medical  Staff,   Union  Medical  College,  Peking, 
lustrates  the  making  of  a  native  medical  profession. 


II- 


D 


ormitory,   Union  Medical  College,  Peking.     Illustrates 
Christian  union  in  the  social  work  of  missions. 


BENEVOLENCE 

portunities  to  work  for  Korea  until,  when  the  crown 
prince  had  been  wounded  in  a  street  riot,  and  the  native 
physicians  had  failed  to  stop  the  flowing  blood  by 
stuffing  in  wax,  he  was  called  on  as  a  last  resort.  He 
soon  mended  the  torn  artery,  and  from  that  day  was 
given  free  scope  for  his  work  of  healing  both  body  and 
soul.  After  Dr.  Mackenzie  had  cured  the  wife  of 
Li  Hung  Chang,  the  port  of  Tientsin  was  open  to  the 
gospel,  and  the  great  viceroy  became  the  friend  of 
Christian  benevolence.  Dr.  Livingstone  probed  his 
way  through  Africa,  and  was  known  far  and  wide  in 
the  heart  of  the  Dark  Continent  as  a  miracle  worker. 
Dr.  Carr  won  his  way  into  Persia  when  all  others  had 
been  denied  entrance.  Kashmir  was  a  closed  land 
until  Dr.  Elmslie  opened  it  at  the  point  of  his  lancet. 
The  story  could  be  repeated  on  a  hundred  fields.  "The 
greatest  discoveries  made  in  Africa  were  the  roads 
to  the  hearts  and  confidences  of  the  people,"  said 
Henry  M.  Stanley.  The  medical  missionary  touches 
them  where  they  can  understand.  They  know  of 
their  physical  wounds  and  diseases,  but  are  often  be- 
numbed and  unconscious  of  their  moral  troubles.  The 
missionary's  benevolence  in  dispensary,  hospital,  or- 
phanage, school,  and  by  personal  friendship  not  only 
interprets  to  them  the  real  heart  of  the  religion  of 
Jesus,  but  makes  them  "potent  forces,  which  are  to- 
day influencing  and  winning  the  millions  of  the  Far 
East  to  the  realities  and  beneficent  blessings  of  a  new 
life,"  says  Wm.  Remfry  Hunt  in  "Heathenism  Under 
the  Searchlight."  John  W.  Foster,  ex-Secretary  of 
State,  and  noted  diplomat,  found  in  surgery  "a  ready 
means    of    overcoming    prejudice    and    opposition." 

133 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

Opium  smokers  have  been  rescued  to  become  effective 
workers.  It  is  not  easy  to  cure  the  opium  habit.  It 
is  said  that  some  of  the  older  officials  of  China  died 
in  their  efforts  to  obey  the  anti-opium  edict.  The 
physicians  say  that  cures  are  seldom  permanent  if 
there  be  not  a  mighty  purpose  in  the  heart,  such  as 
only  religion  can  be  trusted  to  supply.  So  the  faith 
becomes  a  part  of  the  materia  medica  of  the  good 
physicians.  Evangelist  Shi  is  a  notable  example  of 
an  opium  smoker  made  over  into  a  winner  of  men. 
He  was  a  great  story  teller,  and,  as  is  customary  in 
China,  related  tales  to  crowds  as  a  sort  of  monologue 
dramatist.  For  twenty  years  he  smoked  up  his  con- 
siderable earnings  until  rescued  by  Dr.  Macklin. 
For  another  twenty  years  he  has  been  an  evangelist, 
with  few  equals  in  all  China.  Not  all  who  come  are 
cured,  and  not  all  who  are  helped  become  Christians, 
and  not  all  who  become  members  of  the  churches  are 
heroes,  but  the  many  who  are  cured  commend  the  re- 
ligion that  sent  them  such  a  physician,  and  the  many 
who  are  thus  led  to  consider  Christianity,  and  to  adopt 
It,  give  a  testimony  that  is  unanswerable,  and  from 
among  them  come  an  array  of  heroic  souls  that  is 
not  equaled  outside  the  mission  field.  "The  aim  of 
foreign  missions  is  not  to  care  for  all  the  industrial, 
social,  economic,  and  physical  ills  of  the  non-Chris- 
tian world,  but  to  plant  there  the  living  seeds  of  the 
gospel  of  the  incarnate  God,"  says  Robert  E.  Speer. 
"The  gospel  is  to  be  the  healing  of  the  World." 

Philanthropic  work  opens  the  resources  of  the  lands 
to  which  it  ministers.  Buddhism  and  Confucianism 
have  both  been  stimulated  to  imitate  the  benevolent 

134 


BENEVOLENCE 

efforts  of  Christianity.  They  have  opened  schools 
where  before  they  had  none,  and  Buddhism  to-day 
is  copying  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association 
with  a  Young  Men's  Buddhist  Association.  Con- 
fucianism's "Halls  of  Learning"  are,  in  places,  taking 
over  the  attributes  of  Association  work.  The  Chinese 
are  building  hospitals  and  endowing  them  here  and 
there.  The  only  difficulty  they  meet  is  that  of  ade- 
quate sympathetic  interest  on  the  part  of  physicians, 
for  the  missionary  is  not  equipped  with  science  merely, 
his  sympathy  is  the  better  part  of  the  cure.  The  rich 
are  learning  how  to  give  to  benevolent  enterprises. 
A  Hindu  woman  recently  gave  $60,000  for  a  hospital. 
Dr.  Macklin  has  received  several  thousand  dollars, 
one  gift  being  that  of  $3,000  for  his  charity  work.  Li 
Hung  Chang  provided  for  the  current  expense  account 
of  the  hospital  and  dispensary  of  Dr.  Mackenzie  at 
Tientsin,  and  wealthy  Chinese  gave  $10,000  for  its 
erection.  Two  years  ago  the  officials  at  Changsha 
gave  the  Yale  mission  $1,400  for  medical  work.  The 
late  Dowager  Empress  of  China  gave  $7,500  for 
the  founding  of  a  medical  school.  The  Em- 
peror of  Japan  gave  $5,000  for  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association  work  during  the  Russo-Japa- 
nese war.  The  Crown  Prince  of  Korea  gave  gen- 
erously for  the  Association  building  in  Seoul, 
as  did  also  Marquis  Ito  and  his  friends.  These  are 
but  few  examples.  Even  in  Africa  the  King  of  Toro 
has  built  a  hospital.  They  might  be  multiplied  in- 
numerably. Some  day  Christianity  will  have  so 
leavened  the  life  of  the  lands  to  which  it  takes  its  mes- 
sage of  sympathy  and  its  hand  of  healing,  that  they 

135 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

will  provide  for  their  own  poor  and  distressed ;  in  doing 
so  it  will  have  lifted  the  whole  earth  nearer  the  King- 
dom of  God.  "The  movement  led  by  Christianity 
has  resulted  in  releasing  thousands  of  the  inmates  of 
brothels,  in  an  effective  temperance  crusade,  and  in  the 
establishment  of  many  benevolent  institutions,  such 
as  the  famous  Ishii  orphanage,"  says  John  Mott, 
in  speaking  of  Japan.  "The  gospel  of  healing  is 
one  that  makes  its  own  way  into  the  hearts  of  the 
people,"  said  Wu  Ting  Fang,  in  commending  medical 
missions.  The  medical  missioner  is  given  entrance 
into  official  circles,  and  all  doors  open  most  easily 
to  him.  He  breaks  down  prejudice  where  it  counts 
for  most  among  peoples  who  are  ruled  from  above  and 
who  accept  the  attitude  of  the  ruler  as  a  model  for 
their  own  actions  in  things  that  relate  to  the  new  and 
the  alien.  He  goes  where  it  would  be  dangerous  for 
any  other  man  to  go,  because  he  takes  healing,  and  all 
who  suffer  are  grateful  to  him  who  gives  relief.  Thus 
his  lancet  opens  the  door  and  his  message  of  life  is 
listened  unto  and  becomes  a  means  of  ingress  to  the 
evangelist  and  teacher. 

The  fame  of  the  medical  missionary  spreads  far 
and  wide.  He  opens  hearts  by  his  ministrations,  and 
they  open  homes  by  their  commendations.  Dr.  Mac- 
kay  pulled  21,000  teeth  in  Formosa,  and  so  relieved 
a  common  pain  that  whole  villages  were  opened  to  his 
message.  Dr.  Macklin  was  traveling  some  days  from 
home  and  where  hostility  for  the  foreigner  was  marked. 
He  could  get  no  entertainment  and  night  was  upon 
them.  Mr.  Cory,  who  was  with  him,  was  asked,  by 
a  man  who  happened  to  come  along,  the  usual  questions 

136 


BENEVOLENCE 

as  to  where  he  was  from,  etc.  When  he  replied 
"Nankin,"  the  man  eagerly  asked  for  Dr.  Macklin. 
When  told  that  he  was  in  the  party,  this  man  eagerly 
invited  them  into  his  home,  made  them  comfortable, 
and  hastened  to  tell  the  neighbors.  Through  him 
many  listened  that  night.  He  had  been  cured  by  the 
good  physician  many  years  before.  Mobs  have  been 
quieted  by  such  men,  and  lives  saved.  They  have 
opened  doors  long  before  the  evangelist's  feet  came  to 
enter  them.  Bars  of  prejudice  and  superstition  are 
broken.  Dr.  Clough  baptized  10,000  after  his  famine 
relief  work,  though  he  had  waited  long  for  an  opening. 
Even  the  most  bigoted  of  Oriental  Jews  have  yielded 
to  the  persuasion  of  the  medical  missioner.  Islamic 
centers  have  not  been  able  to  deny  him  entrance,  and 
their  fatalism  has  had  to  surrender  to  the  magic  of 
his  medicine.  Among  the  Mohammedans  he  must 
lead  the  way,  for  their  intolerance  is  great  and  all  but 
Moslems  are  infidels  and  dogs,  but  they  suffer  and  are 
healed,  and  a  friendship  thus  won  opens  hearts  closed 
by  intolerance  and  dogmatic  hate.  Arabia  is  to-day 
calling  for  doctors  to  open  closed  doors  with  their 
lancets,  and  there  is  no  place  in  the  world  where  there 
is  permanent  denial  to  the  good  physician.  His  cause 
runs  before  him.  Dr.  Porter  received  patients  from 
1,031  different  towns  and  villages.  One  hospital  in 
Bengal  has  had  patients  from  2,091  villages.  They 
come  to  get  personal  benefit  and  go  to  carry  a  message 
of  good  will  to  all  men.  The  hospital  and  the  orphan- 
age have  arms  that  reach  out  to  distant  places,  and 
voices  that  speak  in  many  tongues.  Their  evangel 
is  self-transporting,  and  they  make  the  voice  of  the 

137 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

heathen  to  praise  Him  who  giveth  all  good.  Whole 
villages  are  won  to  the  message;  entire  tribes  have  been 
known  to  turn  an  open  ear  and  an  understanding  mind, 
through  the  tidings  carried  by  some  who  had  been 
benefitted  by  Christian  benevolence. 

There  is  no  caste  in  the  clinic.  The  silk-gowned 
aristocrat  sits  beside  the  ragged  coolie,  for  pain  makes 
all  men  of  kin.  The  missionary  refuses  to  recognize 
their  artificial  social  lines  in  his  ministrations  of  healing, 
whether  it  is  of  body  or  soul.  The  rich  learn  a  fellow 
sympathy  under  his  ministrations,  and,  in  gratitude, 
aid  him  in  the  care  of  the  poor.  The  native  Christians 
become  sympathetic  and  charitable  under  instruction 
in  the  arts  of  benevolence.  The  Great  Physician 
commends  unto  them  a  spirit  of  fellow-help,  and  many 
become  Good  Samaritans  to  the  need  about  them. 
That  parable  of  neighborliness  is  often  reacted  in  the 
mission  field,  for  there  the  priest  passes  by  the  suffering 
and  the  despised  convert  turns  aside  to  lend  a  hand. 
Ex-Secretary  John  Foster  said  that  if  not  a  single 
convert  had  been  made  in  the  past  century,  the  social 
and  moral  benefits  that  the  missionary  had  taken, 
in  his  practical  benevolence  on  the  field,  would  amply 
pay  for  all  the  blood  and  treasure  it  had  cost.  The 
friendly  and  sympathetic  hand  finds  way  into  the 
closed  homes  of  peoples  who  condemn  their  woman- 
kind to  seclusion  and  ignorance  and  takes  with  it  cheer 
and  lessons  for  mind  and  hand,  and  above  all,  a  touch 
of  the  larger  life  for  the  heart  of  the  poor  prisoners  to  a 
social  custom.  Here  woman  carries,  as  in  no  other 
sphere,  the  sweet  sympathy  of  Christian  womanhood. 

138 


BENEVOLENCE 

She  takes  the  sunshine  of  a  new  hope  inside  with  her, 
and  not  only  cures  bodies  but  enlightens  eyes,  and,  in 
many  cases,  so  breaks  down  prejudices  that  doors 
are  opened  and  a  little  of  the  world  let  in.  These  ig- 
norant, custom-blinded,  and  prejudiced  women  are 
the  main  defenders  of  their  own  imprisonment  and  the 
chief  obstacle  often  in  the  way  of  a  greater  freedom  for 
caste  and  class.  They  are  superstitious  and  intolerant 
of  innovation.  There  are  millions  of  them  in  Islam 
and  in  India  and  China,  who  would  rather  die  than 
allow  a  male  physician  touch  them.  If  the  husband 
consents  to  accept  this  help,  it  is  only  because  he  is 
the  one  in  a  hundred  who  loves  his  wife  or  daughter 
enough  to  throw  prejudice  to  the  winds  for  the  sake 
of  saving  a  life.  If  he  does  not  so  love  them  he  re- 
fuses, for  wives  are  cheap  and  custom  is  a  cruel  task- 
master. "We  dread  your  lady  doctors,"  said  a  Hindu, 
"they  enter  our  homes,  win  the  hearts  of  our  women, 
and  threaten  the  foundation  of  our  religion." 

Medicine  and  religion  are  bound  up  together  in 
the  superstition  of  heathenism.  The  witch  doctors 
of  savagery  are  adepts  in  the  arts  of  incantation,  and 
their  theology  teaches  that  suffering  is  the  result 
of  spirit  possession.  The  quackery  of  all  the  unscien- 
tific practice  of  paganism  is  mixed  with  superstition 
and  religious  charlatanry.  It  is  fitting  that  religion 
should  remedy  the  superstitious  practices  of  char- 
latanry and  carry  a  scientific  medicament  with  its  in- 
telligence and  its  liberty  for  the  souls  of  men.  Coming 
in  the  name  of  religion,  the  treatment  is  received  with 
a  faith  that  it  might  not  otherwise  receive,  and  the 

139 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

cure  opens  the  way  to  combat  superstition  and  false 
religious  practices.  Above  all,  it  ministers  in  the 
name  of  Him  who  went  about  doing  good,  and  so 
teaches  the  real  art  of  Christian  living  as  it  carries 
the  message  of  a  Christian  Savior. 


140 


CHAPTER  IV 

Education:  The  Means  of  Progress 

1.    The  Missionary  Contribution  to  Culture. 

The  conquest  of  ideas  can  not  be  tabulated,  but 
it  is  none  the  less  sure;  it  is  the  undercurrent  that 
irresistibly  carries  all  that  floats  its  seas.  The  surface 
play  of  politics  makes  for  little  compared  to  the  deep 
influence  of  ideas.  Rome  conquered  Greece  politically, 
but  Grecian  ideas  conquered  Rome.  The  art,  the 
universal  language,  the  philosophy,  and  the  culture 
of  Rome  was  Grecian.  We  read  the  history  of  the 
Middle  Ages  in  terms  of  war  and  diplomacy,  but  until 
we  read  the  history  of  thought  we  do  not  understand 
that  interesting  period.  We  misjudge  Christianity 
when  we  recount  the  surface  play  of  ecclesiastical 
politics  during  the  so-called  Dark  Ages,  and  charge  it 
up  to  the  religion  of  the  Nazarene;  it  was  a  time  of 
struggle  between  the  political  forms  and  crude  customs 
of  the  old  pagan  civilization,  and  the  startling  innova- 
tions proposed  by  the  new  ideas  of  the  Man  of  Galilee. 
Those  ideas  have  not  yet  come  into  their  own,  but  it 
is  the  philosophy  of  life  and  the  vision  of  universal 
brotherhood  they  bring  that  is  transforming  the  heart 
of  the  world  and  changing  the  currents  of  history. 

The  missionary  has  ever  been  a  pioneer  in  the  con- 
quest of  ideas.    Wherever  he  has  gone  he  has  taken 

141 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

the  schoolhouse.  He  has  rooted  out  idolatry  and  su- 
perstition and  banished  dark  ignorance  with  the  light 
of  his  flaming  torch.  He  has  given  the  Scriptures  to 
some  five  hundred  tongues,  and  is  pressing  on  to  give  it 
to  all  others,  and  to  give  with  it  the  universal  art  of  read- 
ing. He  has  written  text-books,  compiled  dictionaries, 
constructed  grammars,  translated  works  of  science,  law, 
religion,  political  economy,  history,  and  sociology, 
and  counted  every  item  of  knowledge  he  could  put 
into  the  vernacular  of  a  people  a  distinct  contribution 
to  their  welfare,  and  a  step  in  bringing  in  the  Kingdom 
of  God.  Robert  Morrison  not  only  translated  the 
entire  Bible  into  Chinese,  but  compiled  an  encyclo- 
pedic dictionary  of  their  difficult  language;  either 
task  would  have  been  a  monumental  work  for  one  man. 
William  Carey  translated  the  Scriptures  and  other 
religious  material  into  more  than  thirty  languages 
and  dialects  in  India,  and  founded  a  college  besides. 
Gutzlaff  wrote  sixty-one  volumes  in  Chinese,  two  in 
Japanese,  one  in  Siamese,  five  in  Dutch,  seven  in  Ger- 
man, and  nine  in  English.  The  Chinese  have  been 
debtors  to  the  most  phenomenal  literary  labors  of 
modern  times.  Morrison,  besides  the  monumental 
labors  mentioned  above,  wrote  twenty-five  volumes  in 
Chinese,  Milne  gave  them  twenty-four,  Legge  twenty, 
and  Faber  twenty-seven,  while  Dr.  Muirhead,  in  later 
times,  gave  them  thirty  books,  Dr.  McCartee  thirty- 
four,  and  Dr.  Edkins  wrote  fourteen  in  Chinese,  seven 
in  English,  and  one  in  Mongolian.  Other  fields  have 
received  like  contributions  in  literature,  and  there 
is  no  phase  of  human  knowledge  that  has  not  been 
given  to  the  pagan  world  at  Christian  hands  and  given 

142 


EDUCATION 

as  a  glad  contribution  for  their  welfare.  One  mission 
press  of  China  puts  out  84,000,000  pages  annually, 
and  another  in  India  more  than  76,000,000  pages. 
The  160  mission  presses  in  all  the  fields  issue  no  less 
than  12,000,000  copies  of  various  publications  annu- 
ally, according  to  Dr.  Dennis,  and  send  out  more  than 
400,000,000  pages  as  Sibylline  leaves  to  carry  prophecy 
of  the  coming  better  day,  when  the  knowledge  of  the 
Lord  shall  cover  the  earth  as  the  waters  the  sea. 
Bibles  and  parts  of  the  Bible  are  annually  distributed 
by  hundreds  of  thousands,  and  in  all  the  older  mission- 
ary fields  are  now  gladly  purchased  by  the  people. 
This  general  diffusion  of  knowledge  among  the  reading 
minority  has  stimulated  greatly  the  love  of  learning 
among  all  the  people,  and  substituted  a  live  and  modern 
view  of  the  world  for  the  ancient  traditions.  It  has 
vastly  aided  China,  Japan,  and  Korea  to  turn  their 
faces  from  the  sunset  of  the  past  to  the  sunrise  of  the 
future.  It  is  helping  to  put  a  historical  perspective 
back  of  Hindu  speculation,  and  to  train  the  Indian 
mind  toward  practical  and  serviceable  knowledge. 
The  missionary  sets  ideas  to  work,  and,  increasing 
modern  knowledge,  banishes  ancient  superstitions, 
and  turns  the  pagan  mind  from  its  distorted  concep- 
tion of  natural  phenomena  to  a  more  scientific  concep- 
tion of  nature,  and  thus  sets  him  on  the  road  to  open- 
mindedness  and  progress. 

When  the  first  Irish  missionaries  set  out  on  their 
journeys  to  the  wild  men  of  Scotland,  Northumbria, 
Friesland,  and  Germany,  they  took  with  them  the 
fundamentals  of  education.  In  Ireland,  St.  Patrick's 
Christian  settlements  had  been   communities  for  in- 

143 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

struction.  Columba  founded  a  school  with  his  church 
at  Iona.  Boniface's  monasteries  in  Germany  were  also 
schools.  The  Jesuits  originated  the  idea  of  separate 
Christian  communities  in  their  "Reductions"  in  Para- 
guay, and  carried  the  idea  into  the  missions  of  Cali- 
fornia; in  them  they  taught  the  converts  the  rudiments 
of  learning  and  gave  an  industrial  training.  Duff  be- 
came the  founder  of  the  modern  school  system  in 
India.  Verbeck  established  the  first  college  in  Japan, 
and  is  the  real  founder  of  the  Imperial  University. 
Dr.  Murray  was  invited  from  America  by  the  Japanese 
Government  to  establish  its  modern  school  system. 
Dr.  Martin  has  been  justly  called  the  father  of  modern 
education  in  China.  Stewart,  of  Lovedale,  set  the 
type  of  educational  institution  for  savage  Africa,  the 
inspector  of  schools  for  South  Africa  saying,  "A  visit 
to  Lovedale  would  convert  the  greatest  skeptic  regard- 
ing the  value  of  native  education."  The  missionary 
is  the  real  founder  of  modern  education  in  all  the  non- 
Christian  lands.  He  sows  the  seed,  sets  the  ideal,  in- 
spires the  organization,  and  generally  manages  the 
beginnings  of  governmental  efforts,  besides  actually 
educating  the  leaders  in  his  own  institutions. 

The  non-Christian  world  is  an  ignorant  world. 
Two-thirds  of  humanity  can  not  read  and  write,  and 
the  most  of  that  illiterate  population  is  non-Christian. 
In  India  there  are  278,000,000  illiterates,  or  891  to  the 
thousand,  while  in  the  United  States  there  are  only 
65  to  the  thousand.  In  Japan  only  the  upper  classes 
could  read  and  write  before  Western  civilization 
entered.  All  Africa  is  black  and  sodden  in  ignorance, 
and,  except  where  the  missionary  has  taught  them, 

144 


EDUCATION 

do  not  so  much  as  know  that  writing  is  possible.  China 
has  long  honored  her  literati,  but  has  had  no  public 
school  system  that  reached  the  masses,  and  has  left 
her  womankind  in  almost  total  ignorance.  Korea's 
education  began  within  the  missionary  era  of  her 
present  inner  transformation.  Confucianism  and 
Brahmanism  both  possess  educational  ideas,  but  both 
make  it  the  vehicle  for  turning  the  face  to  the  past, 
and  crystalize  social  custom  and  forbid  progress.  Con- 
fucianism is  democratic  in  that  it  opens  the  way  for 
any  boy  to  become  learned  if  his  parents  can  purchase 
the  instruction,  but  it  provides  no  universal  education 
and  it  instructs  in  the  classics  instead  of  the  sciences, 
and  trains  the  mind  by  verbal  memory  rather  than  in 
logical  thinking.  Its  classical  writings  are  morally 
pure,  even  more  so  than  those  of  the  ancients  we  teach 
to  our  Western  youth,  and  they,  at  least,  are  set  into 
the  circle  of  the  national  life,  but  they  give  little  prac- 
tical knowledge,  and  they  bound  China  to  the  mummies 
of  a  past.  Brahmanism  forbids  instruction  to  any 
but  the  caste,  and  thus  denies  education  her  right  to 
remake  society;  she  makes  learning  consist  in  subtle 
speculation  and  knows  no  practical  arts.  Buddhism 
is  the  most  liberal  and  progressive  of  the  non-Chris- 
tian faiths,  but  even  she  has  never  reared  a  public 
school  system,  made  learning  popular,  or  educated 
women,  and  her  desire  to  escape  from  the  toil  of  things 
material  destroys  all  desire  to  know  more  of  the  prac- 
tical world.  In  Burma,  Siam,  and  Tibet,  where  Bud- 
dhism has  been  kept  purest  and  has  been  regnant  for 
centuries,  she  has  never  educated  the  populace.  Islam 
led  the  world  in  the  gift  of  culture  for  four  centuries, 
10  145 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

but  had  no  power  to  overcome  her  own  limitations, 
and  her  world  to-day  is  one  of  blind  ignorance,  fatalism, 
and  superstition. 

The  East  is  awakening  to  the  advantages  of  educa- 
tion. They  have  discovered  there  is  no  hope  of  prog- 
ress except  through  the  school  as  the  vehicle.  There 
are  500,000  youth  in  the  high  schools,  colleges,  and  uni- 
versities of  Asia  to-day.  One-fifth  of  all  of  them  are 
in  the  missionary  institutions  for  higher  learning; 
this  measures  somewhat  the  part  the  missionary  is 
playing  in  the  educational  renaissance  of  the  East. 
But  no  government,  with  the  single  exception  of  Japan, 
has  yet  arisen  to  the  situation  and  furnished  adequate 
instruction  for  all.  In  China  the  most  remarkable 
transformation  in  the  history  of  the  world  is  taking 
place.  Her  temples  are  being  turned  into  school- 
houses,  and  her  ancient  examination  stalls  have  been 
torn  down  in  favor  of  modern  learning  and  more  ap- 
proved and  efficient  civil  service  equipment.  Her 
officials  have  urged  the  people  to  give  their  offering 
for  the  dead  to  the  schools;  it  would  amount  in  Shang- 
hai alone  to  $350,000  annually.  In  Tientsin  the 
government  has  forbidden  such  gifts  and  has  estab- 
lished modern  schools  from  primary  to  university. 
Her  projected  educational  system  will  establish  a 
university  in  every  province,  a  high  school  in  every 
considerable  town,  an  elementary  school  in  every 
village,  and  crown  all  with  magnificent  graduate  and 
technical  universities.  But  to-day  she  is  able  to  fur- 
nish schooling  to  only  one  in  from  every  forty  to  fifty- 
five  of  her  youth,  and  has  as  yet  only  a  few  of  the  mil- 
lion teachers  it  will  take  to  instruct  all  her  young  people. 

146 


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5- 


EDUCATION 

In  India,  with  the  English  Government's  universal 
school  system,  there  is  only  one  in  every  fifty-seven 
under  instruction,  and  the  missionaries  are  educating 
one-third  of  all  who  attend  college.  In  all  the  non- 
Christian  world  not  more  than  one-tenth  of  the  popu- 
lation can  find  a  school  open  for  their  children,  and  of 
that  tenth  the  great  mass  are  not  inspired  with  a  de- 
sire for  education.  Tradition  surrenders  slowly,  ex- 
cept it  be  given  a  mighty  dynamic  within. 

The  missionaries  are  to-day  instructing  nearly 
1,500,000  youth  in  their  25,000  institutions  of  learning. 
Some  of  the  large  institutions  of  higher  learning  are 
under  missionary  auspices.  In  India  they  have  72 
high  schools,  colleges,  and  universities  with  more 
than  250  students  each,  and  there  are  17  colleges 
with  a  total  attendance  of  more  than  17,000  stu- 
dents, several  of  them  with  from  1,400  to  1,800  apiece. 
St.  Peter's  College  at  Tanjore,  Madras,  has  educated 
more  than  5,000  young  men;  Assiut  College,  in  Egypt, 
has  graduated  2,000,  and  St.  John's,  in  Rangoon, 
Burmah,  has  taught  more  than  12,000.  The  United 
Presbyterian  mission  in  Egypt  conducts  150  schools, 
with  an  attendance  of  16,000  students,  one-fourth  of 
whom  are  Moslems.  In  Persia  there  are  5,000  in  the 
mission  schools,  and  in  some  of  them  one-half  the 
pupils  are  Moslems.  The  Syrian  Protestant  College 
at  Beirut,  Syria,  has  850  students  and  a  faculty  of 
seventy-two  men;  it  is  making  the  leaders  for  all  that 
territory  and  is  finely  equipped.  Robert  College  at 
Constantinople  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  of  ex- 
isting educational  institutions.  Prof.  William  Ram- 
sey says  he  found  their  graduates  over  all  Turkey  and 

147 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

the  Balkans,  and  that  everywhere  they  are  men  of 
integrity,  patriotism,  and  breadth  of  culture.  It  was 
the  graduates  of  Roberts  that  led  in  the  emancipation  of 
Bulgaria.  Urumia  College  bids  fair  to  become  to  Persia 
what  Roberts  has  been  to  the  Balkans  and  Turkey. 
In  all  Turkey  there  are  700  schools,  with  41,000  stu- 
dents, largely  under  Congregational  auspices,  and  they 
have  furnished  the  new  blood  and  the  modern  ideas, 
in  no  small  part,  for  the  remaking  of  the  empire.  In 
Japan  the  missionaries  are  now  confining  their  educa- 
tional work  to  that  which  the  government  does  not 
adequately  supply,  i.  e.,  kindergartens  and  high 
schools.  The  Doshisha  was  the  pioneer  of  Christian 
schools  there  and  graduated  many  of  the  leaders  of 
modern  Japan.  Its  alumni  have  recently  raised 
$100,000  for  its  further  endowment.  St.  John's  Col- 
lege in  Shanghai  is  one  of  the  solidest  educational 
institutions  in  all  the  East.  Madras  University  is 
a  great  school,  with  over  1,700  students.  In  Africa 
the  Blantyre  Mission  has  fifty-seven  schools,  with 
4,000  pupils,  and  the  Livingstone  Mission  has  207 
schools,  with  16,000  students.  In  Uganda  there  are 
60,000  under  instruction,  and  it  is  a  disgrace  not  to 
be  able  to  read.  These  are  but  a  few  of  the  large  num- 
ber that  might  be  named. 

Some  of  the  great  student  centers  of  the  world 
are  now  to  be  found  in  the  Eastern  capitals.  Tokio 
claims  first  place,  with  50,000,  while  Calcutta  has 
20,000,  Peking  has  17,000,  and  Cairo  has  more  than 
10,000.  The  tendency  is  for  the  masses  of  students 
to  gather  in  these  centers  in  each  country.  The  great 
question  of  the  day  is  regarding  the  moral  quality  that 

148 


EDUCATION 

these  students  will  take  away  from  the  colleges  with 
them.  Herbert  Spencer  said,  "The  idea  that  mere 
education  is  a  panacea  for  political  evils  is  a  delusion." 
He  was  introduced  at  a  dinner  given  him  by  the  notable 
literary  men  and  educators  of  New  York  by  William 
M.  Evarts,  who,  as  toastmaster,  said,  out  of  compliment 
to  the  great  compiler  and  apostle  of  knowledge,  that 
the  attainment  and  diffusion  of  knowledge  was  the 
promise  and  the  hope  of  America.  He  replied  that 
he  was  embarrassed  to  have  to  take  issue  with  one 
who  had  given  him  so  kindly  an  introduction,  but 
that  it  was  not  knowledge  but  character  that  was  the 
hope  and  promise  of  America.  Premier  Katsura,  of 
Japan,  wrote  President  Harada,  of  the  Doshisha  Uni- 
versity, congratulating  him  upon  the  manner  in  which 
the  college  had  stamped  character  upon  the  young  men 
of  Japan,  and  said,  "May  it  become  a  citadel  of  cul- 
ture." In  India  even  the  government  officials  acknowl- 
edge the  inefficiency  of  the  national  schools  in  the 
training  of  character.  Count  Okuma  has  been  es- 
pecially emphatic  in  his  apostleship  of  the  idea  that 
character  must  be  given  with  education  or  it  is  a  failure, 
and  has  ever  commended  both  the  Christian  schools 
and  Christian  ethics  as  the  true  source  of  it.  The 
school  of  a  non-Christian  land  does  not  have  the  Chris- 
tian for  a  teacher  as  it  usually  does  in  America  and 
Britain,  and  education  all  too  often  means  no  social 
conscience,  but  only  a  means  for  individual  preferment. 
As  a  consequence,  the  educated  man  is  not  less  li- 
centious or  corrupt  in  office,  but  more  artful,  and, 
without  social  conscience,  he  fails  to  uplift  his  kind. 
"What  you  would  put  into  the  life  of  a  nation,  put 

149 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

into  its  schools,"  says  an  old  German  proverb.  All 
the  East  is  awakening  to  the  need  of  a  high  moral 
tone  in  education.  One-half  of  the  100,000  young  men 
in  the  higher  schools  of  learning  conducted  by  the  mis- 
sionaries will  give  themselves  to  teaching. 

2.     Creating  a  Leadership. 

The  Christian  community  becomes  a  leaven  in  the 
midst  of  the  pagan  community;  its  ideals  gradually 
take  hold,  and  many  who  do  not  confess  the  faith 
come  to  practice  the  precept.  Keshub  Chunder  Sen, 
the  founder  of  the  Brahmo  Somaj  of  India,  was  led 
by  the  teachings  of  Christianity.  Mozoomdar  was  con- 
verted by  Christianity,  and,  while  unable  to  unite 
with  a  divided  church,  gave  his  great  influence  to 
Christian  morals.  Many  of  the  leaders  of  Japan  and 
China  have  accepted  the  morals  of  Christianity  and 
plead  with  their  youth  to  do  the  same.  The  late 
progressive  king  of  Siam  was  educated  by  a  missionary. 
But  it  is  not  the  leaders  alone  who  are  lifted  up  by 
contact  with  Christian  thought;  it  enters  into  the  cus- 
toms of  the  common  people  and  raises  the  standards 
of  living  and  the  grade  of  common  intelligence.  There 
is  no  influence  so  pervasive  as  that  of  personal  contact, 
and  every  true  native  Christian  touches  many  of  his 
neighbors.  Thus  there  comes  a  leadership  of  ideals 
and  ideas  that  is  pervasive  and  elevates  all  living. 

Nothing  more  fatal  could  happen  than  for  a  people 
to  accept  the  externals  of  Christianity  without  getting 
its  vital  life.  They  would  have  thrown  away  what 
discipline  their  old  faith  gave  them,  and  taken  none 
of  the  moral  sanctions  of  the  new  in  its  stead.     Here 

150 


EDUCATION 

lies  the  danger  of  Western  innovation  and  material 
advantage  impinging  upon  the  culture  of  the  East  and 
the  barbarous  life  of  savagery.  Education  assimilates 
the  outward  to  the  inner  and  fits  a  man  to  enjoy  the 
greater  material  advantages  of  civilization  and  freedom 
from  the  old  bondage,  without  losing  himself  in  a 
riot  of  riches  that  he  does  not  know  how  to  use.  "A 
change  of  mind  is  needed  as  well  as  a  change  of  heart." 
Mere  conversion  is  not  enough;  the  convert  must  be 
instructed  in  the  things  of  the  new  life.  The  danger 
of  education  in  Asia  is  that  it  will  fail  to  give  character 
to  the  leaders  of  the  next  generation.  The  destruction 
of  the  old  superstition  is  followed  by  a  reaction  against 
religion.  Such  was  the  case  in  Japan,  where  a  smat- 
tering of  scientific  knowledge  all  too  often  meant  the 
danger  of  a  little  learning.  Most  of  the  40,000  stu- 
dents in  the  higher  government  schools  of  learning 
in  India  are  skeptics  in  regard  to  all  religion.  No 
educated  man  is  an  idolater,  and  all  too  often  he  is  a 
materialist,  pure  and  simple.  It  is  fortunate  for  India 
that  every  third  college  man  is  under  Christian  in- 
struction. 

Missions  have  played  one  of  their  greatest  roles 
in  the  furnishing  of  leadership  for  the  awakened  nations 
of  the  East.  William  Elliot  Griffis  says  that  previous 
to  1890  most  of  the  leaders  of  new  Japan  had  been 
educated  in  the  mission  schools ;  that  fact  may  account 
for  the  lack  of  excesses  in  the  revolution.  One-half 
the  mission  students  of  China  take  up  teaching  or 
direct  Christian  service,  and  their  influence  in  temper- 
ing the  new  era  will  be  recognized  by  the  leaders  of 
new  China.     In  Japan  no  less  than  twenty  of  the  editors 

151 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

of  the  leading  dailies  are  Christian  men,  while  the 
number  of  Christians  in  Parliament  and  the  leading 
ofhces  of  state  is  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  number  of 
church  members  in  the  empire.  Duff  said,  "The  real 
reformers  of  Hindustan  will  be  the  well  qualified 
Hindus."  The  Director  of  Public  Instruction  for 
India  said,  twenty  years  ago,  that  at  the  present  rate 
the  Christian  community  of  India  would  ultimately 
furnish  most  of  the  professional  leadership  of  the  nation, 
and  that  they  bid  fair  to  become  the  industrial  leaders 
as  well.  An  instance  of  their  progress  in  leadership 
in  China  is  given  by  the  Commercial  Press  of  Shanghai. 
It  was  organized  by  Christian  young  men,  graduates 
of  mission  schools,  and  took  for  its  avowed  purpose  the 
creation  of  a  Christian  enterprise  on  Christian  prin- 
ciples, and  was  inspired  by  the  opportunity  to  serve 
the  nation  through  furnishing  good  literature.  To- 
day it  does  a  business  of  a  million  a  year,  furnishes 
70%  of  all  the  books  printed  in  China,  keeps  the 
Lord's  Day,  and  is  one  of  the  most  reputable  and  hon- 
orable business  enterprises  to  be  found  anywhere. 
The  literature  of  modern  Japan  is  predominantly  from 
the  hands  of  men  educated  in  the  mission  schools. 
If  the  church  is  to  be  strong  on  the  mission  field, 
it  must  have  an  educated  leadership,  and  that  leader- 
ship must  be  increasingly  native.  No  foreigner  can 
appeal  to  a  people  as  can  their  own  leaders.  Those 
missions  that  have  paid  all  but  exclusive  attention 
to  evangelism  and  have  neglected  education  are  to-day 
suffering  for  leadership,  while  those  that  both  evan- 
gelized and  educated  are  growing  with  increasing  mo- 
mentum.    The  London  Missionary  Society  is  notable 

152 


EDUCATION 

among  the  latter;  it  is  to-day  multiplying  its  native 
staff  much  more  rapidly  than  that  of  its  foreign  leaders, 
and  reaping  consequent  benefits  in  self-supporting 
churches,  Christianized  communities,  and  an  efficient 
public  leadership  for  all  social  advancement.  In  Japan 
15%  of  the  graduates  of  mission  colleges  have  gone 
into  teaching  or  direct  Christian  service,  5%  have 
taken  government  positions,  30%  have  gone  into 
business  and  the  professions,  while  35%  are  pursuing 
advanced  studies.  In  China  the  mission  student  is 
handicapped  at  present  by  governmental  regulation. 
China  is  yet  afraid  lest  foreign  instruction  means 
the  domination  of  the  alien,  and  compels  all  govern- 
ment students  to  bow  to  the  tablet  of  Confucius  and 
forbids  any  to  vote  who  are  not  from  government 
schools.  These  fears  will  soon  subside,  and,  as  in 
Japan,  the  Christian  young  men  of  education  will 
exert  a  wide  influence  in  the  making  of  the  new  China. 
There  is  also  a  great  handicap  to  the  Chinese  church 
in  its  claims  en  its  graduates  for  direct  Christian  serv- 
ice. They  are  accused  tauntingly  of  "eating  the  for- 
eigner's rice,"  are  compelled  to  work  for  from  one-third 
to  one-twentieth  what  commercial  and  government 
service  pays,  and,  in  some  instances,  ignorantly  classed 
with  the  priestly  element  and  despised  accordingly. 
That  one-half  enter  either  direct  Christian  service  or 
teaching,  and  thus  become  the  real  leaven  of  the  new 
order,  is  a  magnificent  tribute  to  their  spirit  of  self- 
sacrifice  and  their  love  of  fellow-man.  The  new  pa- 
triotism in  China  exalts  service  of  the  nation  to  an 
almost  religious  enthusiasm,  but  the  missionary  is 
even  less  concerned  about  making  officials  than  he  is 

153 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

about  furnishing  the  educators  and  social  welfore 
exponents  of  the  new  era;  for  the  men  who  create  the 
ideals  and  inculcate  the  ideas  for  the  new  era  will  most 
effectually  mould  it.  The  church  in  every  mission  field 
needs  men  who  will  interpret  Christian  principles  into 
the  indigenous  thought  of  the  people.  To  that  end  the 
missionary  candidates  of  to-day  should  be  well  in- 
structed in  pedagogy,  and  know  how  to  impress  the 
mind  of  the  native  student  with  principles  without 
destroying  his  personality  as  a  native.  The  mission 
school  is  vastly  superior  to  any  other  on  the  field,  in 
both  morals  and  pedagogical  efficiency,  but  the  latter 
needs  further  strengthening.  Most  of  the  higher 
schools  of  learning  are  sadly  undermanned.  What 
they  are  able  to  do  with  their  inadequate  staffs  is  one 
of  the  marvels  of  missions,  but  if  the  church  would 
rise  to  her  opportunities,  she  will  supply  adequate 
faculties  and  hasten  the  day  when  Christianity  will 
have  both  a  competent  leadership  for  herself  in  the 
field,  and  also  multiply  her  power  to  furnish  thoroughly 
Christianized  leaders  for  all  spheres  of  life. 

Educated  youth  make  the  morrow.  In  our  own 
country  the  1%  that  takes  a  full  college  course  occupy 
70%  of  the  positions  of  influence.  How  much  more 
will  it  be  so  in  nations  in  the  making?  The  education 
of  the  many  lifts  immeasurably  the  whole  standard 
of  living.  The  missionary  generally  has  to  begin  with 
the  lower  classes  in  his  schools  as  in  his  churches,  but 
education  makes  these  dispossessed  of  one  generation 
the  leaders  of  the  next.  Efficiency  will  eventually 
take  command,  even  though  the  odds  be  great.  The 
educational  ideal  of  life  leavens  the  whole  social  life 

154 


EDUCATION 

of  a  people.     It  establishes  a  democracy  and  destroys 
caste.      In  India  to-day  there  are  170,000,000  bound 
by  the  thongs  of  caste.     In  all  paganism  womankind 
is  socially  of  lower  caste.     Most  religions  stand  for 
a  sort  of  caste  preferment  for  their  adherents.     Mo- 
hammedanism constitutes  itself  a  proud  caste  wherever 
it  exists.     Brahmanism  confines  its  glories  to  the  few 
who    are    born    within    its    sacred    precincts.     Those 
educated  in  the  writings  of   Confucius    are  a  select 
class  in  China.     A  Brahman  of  note  said  before  an 
audience  in  Allahabad,  "lama  Brahman  of  the  Brah- 
mans,  and  of  the  most  orthodox  school,  but  I  must 
confess  that  the  way  in  which  Christianity  has  raised 
the  Pariahs  of  Madras  is  beyond  all  praise  and  puts 
me  to  shame  as  a  Hindu."     The   Christian   patriot 
of  Madras  says,  "The  Christians  look  back  to  the  era 
when  a  few  Galilean  peasants  turned  the  world  upside 
down  and  shook  the  ancient  fabric  of  civilization,  and 
then  look  forward  to  when  the  emancipated  Pariah 
shall  stand  amongst  those  redeemed  by  Christ  from 
every  kindred,  and  tongue,  and  people,  and  nation." 
Idleness  is  no  longer  dignified,  work  becomes  respect- 
able, and  it  is  no  longer  said  as  in  a  Hindu  proverb, 
"He  who  reads  must  be  waited  upon  by  him  who  does 
not."     Self-reliance  and  confidence  take  hold  of  the 
lowly  and  men  are  made  potential  with  a  new  power. 
A  new  environment  is  gradually  created,   and  in  it 
the  multitudes  who  follow  are  given  a  larger  oppor- 
tunity.    "It  must  be  remembered,"  said  Gladstone, 
"that  the  moral  standards  of  individuals  are  fixed, 
not  alone  by  their  personal  convictions,  but  by  the 
principles,  the  traditions,  and  the  habits  of  the  society 

155 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

in  which  they  live  and  below  which  it  is  a  point  of 
honor,  as  well  as  of  duty,  not  to  sink.  A  religious 
system  is  only,  then,  truly  tested  when  it  is  set  to  re- 
form and  to  train,  on  a  territory  of  its  own,  great  masses 
of  mankind."  With  this  challenge,  Christianity  goes 
to  educate  the  leadership  of  the  nations,  confident  that 
what  has  come  to  pass  in  the  West  will  also  come  to 
pass  in  the  East,  and  unto  the  uttermost  parts  of  the 
earth  in  the  course  of  time,  and  that  all  men  will  be 
elevated  into  high  planes  of  a  civilized  life  as  the  leaven 
of  knowledge  and  of  righteousness  runs  through  the 
whole  measure. 

3.    Turning  Liabilities  into  Assets. 

"As  a  pagan,  the  Indian  was  a  liability;  as  a  Chris- 
tian he  is  becoming  an  increasing  asset,"  says  a  Ca- 
nadian Government  Blue  Book.  Practically  all  mis- 
sionary work  among  the  Indians  has  been  conducted 
with  industrial  training.  The  success  of  Metlakahtla, 
and  such  superbly  successful  efforts  to  create  a  higher 
type  of  Indian  community,  has  been  based  upon  the 
training  of  hand  with  head  and  heart.  William  Dun- 
can has  made  Metlakahtla  a  type  of  peace  and  pros- 
perity, such  as  few  pioneer  white  communities  can 
show.  He  found  the  Tsimshian  Indians  of  British 
Columbia  a  savage,  degraded  tribe.  They  gave  him 
scant  courtesy  and  put  him  in  grave  danger  often. 
After  a  patient  effort  he  won  their  confidence,  induced 
them  to  give  up  drunkenness,  and  organized  them  into 
an  industrial  community.  It  became  a  model  of 
peaceful,  industrious,  Christian  neighborliness,  and 
is  to-day  one  of  the  shining  examples  of  missionary 

156 


Ji  Class  in  Carpentry—Rhodesia,  Africa.  Illustrating  the 
practical  manner  in  which  the  mission  school  founds  edu- 
cation in  the  practical  arts. 


/Jotton   Weaving  in  India,  illustrating  how    the  missionary 
helps  the  people  to  help  themselves. 


EDUCATION 

power  to  create  a  civilization.  The  primitive  man  has 
little  sense  of  precision  or  accuracy,  and  less  of  logical 
thinking.  The  watch  and  the  mirror  excite  his  wonder, 
if  indeed  they  do  not  arouse  his  apprehension  lest  they 
be  possessed  of  demons;  but  it  never  occurs  to  him  to 
make  inquiries  as  to  their  construction  until  the  white 
man  gives  him  the  lesson  that  unburdens  his  concep- 
tion of  magic  and  instills  the  first  ideas  of  science. 
In  the  native  mind,  idea  and  action  are  not  always 
coupled  together.  The  reality  of  a  thing  and  the 
thought  concerning  it  are  not  connected.  The  Hindu 
may  possess  the  finest  of  speculative  intellects,  but  he 
can  not  invent  a  harvesting  machine;  so,  too,  he  may 
know  all  the  doctrine  and  not  think  of  his  obligation 
to  live  it.  Character  consists  not  in  knowledge,  but 
in  doing  what  one  knows  to  do.  Stewart,  of  Lovedale, 
said  that  the  native  "confounds  instruction  and  educa- 
tion." He  may  learn  all  the  lessons,  but  not  practice 
any  of  them.  What  he  learns  must  be  assimilated 
into  character  and  personality.  He  must  be  not  a 
hearer  only,  but  a  sincere  doer  of  the  word. 

The  catch-word  of  present-day  pedagogy  is,  "no 
impression  without  expression."  It  is  dangerous  to 
know  much  and  to  feel  much  without  doing  much. 
It  is  of  such  stuff  that  hypocrites  are  made.  The  mis- 
sionary finds  a  people  in  Africa  and  other  barbarous 
lands  that  are  idle  and  without  ambition.  In  the 
Malay  States  it  is  impossible  to  hire  the  natives  to 
work.  A  shake  of  the  tree  and  he  has  fruit,  a  line 
into  the  sea  and  he  has  fish,  a  bit  of  beaten  bark  and  his 
wife  has  him  a  garment;  he  builds  his  house  of  a  few 
bamboo,  and  may  while  the  sultry  days  away  with 

157 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

games  and  the  chewing  of  beetle-nut,  so  why  should 
he  work;  money  would  only  buy  things  he  does  not 
need,  and  he  has  no  ambition  to  raise  his  standard 
of  life.  In  contrast  to  this  is  the  report  from  the 
interior  of  Africa,  where  Dr.  Laws  of  the  Livingstonia 
Mission  tells  of  thousands  of  formerly  idle,  half- 
starved  Tongas  now  in  the  employ  of  the  African 
Lakes  Co.,  and  even  of  hundreds  of  the  wild  and  war- 
like Angoni,  formerly  contemptuous  of  aught  but  the 
raid  and  bloodshed,  having  become  industrious  and 
peaceable  in  their  habits,  all  through  industrial  train- 
ing in  that  mission.  The  Catholic  Bishop,  Casar- 
telli,  says  that  their  experience  in  North  Africa  is,  "that 
without  some  preliminary  training  in  habits  of  work 
and  industry,  which  are  at  least  the  rudiments  of 
civilization,  religious  or  moral  teaching  has  little  if 
any  moral  effect. "  It  trains  the  constructive  or  crea- 
tive powers  and  develops  faculties  that  book  instruc- 
tion does  not  develop ;  it  stimulates  the  motor  activities 
and  cultivates  the  inventive  faculties;  it  gives  re- 
sourcefulness and  a  sense  of  possession  that  arouses 
the  instincts  for  accumulation,  without  which  man 
will  not  provide  for  the  morrow.  "The  native  thinks 
little  of  the  future,"  says  the  Principal  of  Blytheswood. 
It  is  a  feast  or  a  famine  with  him.  He  gets  a  regard 
for  work,  whereas  he  has  despised  it.  The  luxury  of 
idleness  is  an  ideal  of  savagery.  Industrial  instruction 
trains  his  mind  in  observation,  precision,  accuracy, 
and  creation;  it  panoplies  him  with  those  fundamentals 
of  civilization — thrift,  industry,  and  a  desire  to  do 
things.  There  is  an  economic  basis  of  civilization. 
The  pagan  peoples  are  poverty-stricken  because  they 

158 


EDUCATION 

have  so  little  creative  power  and  because  they  have 
little  idea  of  conservation. 

Civilization  arouses  new  wants.  The  artisan  is 
necessary  to  progress.  The  native  must  begin  where 
he  is,  and  build  step  at  a  time.  He  can  not  lift  him- 
self with  book  education  if  it  makes  him  abhor  his 
kind,  or  does  not  fit  him  to  do  the  next  best  thing  for 
his  people.  The  Livingstonia  Mission  in  Central 
Africa  gives  its  industrial  instruction  in  houses  built 
of  the  same  material  its  students  will  have  to  use  in 
their  future  work  in  the  village.  It  aims  to  use  the 
native  tools  and  such  improvements  on  them  as  can 
be  made,  together  with  instruments  that  the  native- 
trained  artisan  can  make  for  himself,  in  order  that 
he  may  not  be  a  workman  without  tools.  European 
tools  are  better,  but  they  are  expensive  and  remote, 
and  the  aim  is  to  make  all  skill  acquired  practicable 
to  the  immediate  situation  in  Central  Africa.  Some 
missions  have  erred  in  training  lads  to  become  skilled 
in  things  that  were  not  in  demand  in  their  country, 
and  thus  left  them  skilled  but  without  a  job.  Hampton 
and  Tuskegee  furnish  the  models  for  modern  industrial 
mission  schools.  Their  ideal  is  to  fit  the  student  to 
meet  the  actual  conditions  as  they  exist  about  him, 
and  to  better  them  in  all  practical  ways;  to  make 
every  graduate  capable  of  earning  a  livelihood  for  him- 
self and  family,  among  his  own  people  and  by  minis- 
tering to  their  welfare,  and  to  give  every  one  a  desire  to 
do  actual  labor.  The  first  pupils  in  the  African  mis- 
sions were  taunted  by  the  proud  idlers,  who  lived  by 
the  work  of  their  wives,  with  "selling  their  skins  for 
money;"  but  the  brigand  was  turned  into  an  honest 

159 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

worker  and  industry  replaced  the  slave  raid.  The 
native  hut  was  built  higher  and  wider  and  the  new 
economic  factor  put  on  clothing  in  place  of  his  old 
war  paint  and  tattooing.  The  crooked  path  that  had 
been  made  by  generations  of  savage  feet  was  broadened 
into  a  roadway,  and  oxen  were  hitched  to  the  loads 
that  women  and  bare-backed  men  had  been  accustomed 
to  carry. 

A  literary  training  may  "make  drones  where 
workers  are  needed."  It  is  a  missionary  experience 
that  the  native  may  be  educated  out  of  his  environ- 
ment by  being  taught  as  the  American  school  teaches. 
There  must  ever  be  teachers,  preachers,  and  clerical 
workers  trained,  but  even  they  will  be  all  the  better 
trained  by  having  wholesome  education  in  the  arts 
and  crafts.  The  old  Jewish  custom  would  be  good 
for  the  latest  civilization.  Every  person  would  do 
well  to  have  a  trade,  and  if  there  be  any  truth  in  John 
Ruskin's  idea  that  there  was  no  guarantee  of  whole- 
some character  except  one  had  toiled  with  his  hands, 
it  is  dangerous  to  not  have  been  through  the  discipline 
of  industrial  labor.  The  native  who  is  sent  abroad 
is  liable  to  return  with  a  contempt  for  his  lowly  breth- 
ren, and  to  be  so  educated  above  their  manner  of  life 
that  he  can  not  articulate  with  it  sufficiently  to  help 
them. 

The  late  Charles  Cuthbert  Hall  was  convinced 
that  industrial  training  was  as  beneficial  as  either 
evangelistic  or  medical  missions  in  India.  The  Hindu 
has  some  arts  that  are  rare,  but  in  the  best  of  them 
he  uses  the  most  primitive  methods  and  wastes  untold 
strength.     The  practical  arts  are  not  well  developed, 

160 


EDUCATION 

and  the  resources  of  the  land  and  the  people  are  not 
more  than  touched.  The  government  is  doing  much 
to  develop  material  resources,  but  until  the  people 
are  made  resourceful  the  greatest  mine  of  livelihood 
is  untouched.  The  native  convert  is  liable  to  be 
ostracized  and  cast  out,  both  from  the  common  fund 
of  his  family  and  from  the  trade  in  which  his  guild 
works.  The  industrial  school  makes  him  self-sup- 
porting and  self-reliant,  and  builds  up  a  self-sustaining 
Christian  community.  The  orphan  children  would 
be  mere  beggars  and  parasites  on  society  if  they  were 
trained  in  mind  and  not  in  hand  as  well.  The  govern- 
ment schools  have  educated  so  many  for  clerical  posi- 
tions that  desks  are  overcrowded;  the  great  need  of 
the  land  is  for  practical  workers  who  can  build  up  the 
solid  foundations  of  life  in  character  and  economic 
resourcefulness,  and  break  down  the  paralyzing  system 
of  caste  that  lays  its  hand  on  industry,  as  well  as  on 
all  social  life.  In  China  the  people  are  industrious, 
perhaps  the  most  hard-working  people  in  the  world, 
but  they  use  the  tools  of  the  times  of  Abraham.  Their 
farms  are  tilled  with  a  stick,  sharpened  with  a  flat 
piece  of  iron,  a  club  hoe,  and  a  hook  that  serves  for 
reaper  and  general  utility  instrument.  In  the  African 
industrial  missions  the  steel  plowshare  was  intro- 
duced and  literally  thousands  of  them  have  been 
adopted.  "Why,  they  do  the  work  of  ten  women," 
said  the  wondering  natives.  Chinese  industries  need 
modernization,  and  the  adaptation  of  modern  arts 
to  native  thrift  puts  the  native  Christian  to  the  fore 
as  a  leader  in  his  community.  Dr.  Osgood  tells  how 
he  led  a  native  carpenter  into  the  better  way  through 
11  161 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

the  use  of  a  brace  and  bit.  The  appalling  poverty 
and  the  barren  hardness  of  daily  living  among  China's 
millions  is  due,  not  to  lack  of  native  resources,  but  to 
lack  of  native  resourcefulness.  China  can  not  build 
an  enduring  civilization  of  the  new  order  without 
a  solid  foundation  in  the  industrial  arts  and  a  rise  in 
the  standard  of  life  among  her  masses.  When  the 
missionary  trains  the  hands  he  trains  in  character 
and  makes  the  individual  able  to  lift  his  share  in  the 
betterment  of  society.  Industrial  missions  do  not 
play  the  part  in  China  that  they  do  in  Africa,  or  even 
in  India,  but  they  have  a  large  part  to  play  in  the 
educational  work  of  the  missionary.  In  Japan  the 
thorough  modernization  of  all  life  leaves  the  industrial 
mission  pretty  much  the  same  function  that  it  plays 
in  education  at  home.  The  missionary  has  found 
it  very  necessary  and  useful  in  the  orphanage,  and 
wherever  he  offers  any  schooling  in  the  common  grades 
it  becomes  an  integral  part  of  good  instruction.  In 
Africa  the  industrial  mission  is  the  true  foundation 
of  all  education  and  progress.  When  Dr.  James  Stew- 
art proposed  that  the  most  fitting  memorial  to  David 
Livingstone  was  a  mission  that  would  instruct  the 
natives  in  the  foundations  of  industrial  order  and  use- 
fulness and  make  Christians  of  them,  he  solved  Africa's 
educational  problem.  The  solution  now  only  needs 
pushing  on  to  the  limits  of  its  possibilities,  and  to  the 
shores  of  the  continent.  Elantyre,  Lovedale,  Blythes- 
wood,  Livingstcnia,  and  many  others,  are  giving  the 
example.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  there  is  practically 
no  mission  in  all  Africa  that  does  not  use  the  industrial 
method,  and  in  them  tens  of  thousands  are  receiving, 

162 


EDUCATION 

or  will  receive,  the  foundations  for  a  new  and  better 
era.  Civilization  arouses  new  wants,  and  the  mis- 
sionary fails  if  he  does  not  put  into  the  hands  of  the 
new  disciple  the  means  of  supplying  them.  In  Central 
Africa  there  is  a  settlement  of  native  Chrsitians  that 
has  carved  out  a  community  life  by  the  arts  of  their 
hands  and  through  the  desires  of  their  Christianized 
hearts.  A  few  of  them  first  went  off  into  the  woods 
alone,  and  others  were  welcomed  as  they  came.  It  is 
a  place  of  peace  and  order,  and  even  the  Moslems  have 
been  coming  to  share  in  the  new  and  better  way.  In 
India  Christian  communities  of  Pariahs  have  been 
established,  and  the  poor  outcast  has  become  a  self- 
respecting  freeman,  worthy,  industrious,  and  self- 
supporting,  under  his  own  initiative. 

4.    Teaching  the  Mothers  of  the  Race. 

"Since  the  world  began  it  was  never  known  that 
a  woman  could  read,"  said  the  people  of  South  India, 
when  the  first  school  for  girls  was  opened.  The  non- 
Christian  world  has  no  system  of  instruction  for  its 
womankind.  One  of  the  most  startling  innovations 
of  the  missionary  was  the  school  for  girls.  The  Hindu 
said,  "You  had  as  well  try  to  teach  the  monkeys  to 
read;"  the  Moslem  said  the  same,  only  used  the  mule 
for  his  comparison.  The  savage  marveled  that  the 
missionary  talked  and  ate  with  his  wife  and  made  the 
ox  do  her  work.  England  opened  schools  for  India 
in  1854,  but  in  that  sad  land  only  one  out  of  two- 
hundred  women  above  twenty-five  years  of  age  can 
read  or  write.  In  China  not  more  than  one  woman 
out  of   three-thousand  can  read  or  write.     In  Japan 

163 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

the  modern  educational  system  is  educating  the  girls, 
but  takes  few  above  what  we  know  as  the  "common 
school"  grades.  The  government  provides  no  uni- 
versities for  women,  and  the  three  normal  schools  it 
does  support  cut  off  one  year  from  the  work  given 
men.  There  is  a  great  university  for  women  in  Tokio, 
with  1,000  students,  but  it  was  founded  and  is  managed 
by  a  Christian  scholar.  In  India  the  Hindu  girls  go 
to  school,  if  at  all,  only  until  they  are  about  eleven  or 
twelve  years  old ;  they  are  then  taken  out  to  be  married. 
There  is  only  one  girl  out  of  every  five  hundred  students 
in  the  high  schools,  and  of  the  112  women  in  the  arts 
colleges,  forty-three  are  Christians  and  thirty-three 
Parsis.  In  the  primary  grades  the  girls  furnish  only 
one  pupil  in  seventeen,  and  only  four  out  of  every 
thousand  of  school  age  attend  school  at  all;  in  the 
Central  Provinces  even  that  number  must  be  divided 
by  two.  In  comparison  with  America,  only  one 
Hindu  girl  goes  to  school  to  every  seven  hundred  of 
our  daughters. 

In  all  pagan  lands  the  women  are  the  citadels  of 
religious  superstition;  their  ignorance  and  prejudice 
and  natural  religious  interests  make  them  such.  The 
conservative  men  of  pagan  lands  fear  the  education 
of  their  women  as  no  other  modern  innovation.  It 
means  the  overthrow  of  their  ancient  prerogatives 
of  absolute  lordship  and  a  readjustment  of  the  family 
life  that  spells  revolution  to  the  social  order.  Woman 
is  an  inferior  creature,  and  all  creation  will  be  over- 
thrown if  she  be  not  kept  such.  Hinduism  and  Bud- 
dhism teach  that  she  has  no  salvation  except  she  be 
born  again  as  man;  education  teaches  her  that  there 

164 


EDUCATION 

is  a  worth  in  her  own  soul.  The  Chinese  women  re- 
plied to  early  missionaries  that  it  was  no  use  to  teach 
them,  they  had  no  souls.  Even  Burman  women,  the 
freest  of  all,  have  little  education,  though  they  possess 
an  initiative  that  makes  them  superior  to  their  hus- 
bands in  much,  and,  when  educated  in  Christian 
schools,  acquire  a  grace  and  poise  that  makes  them 
the  equal  of  their  Western  sisters.  There  is  no  eleva- 
tion of  race  possible,  unless  its  mothers  are  elevated; 
one  had  as  well  expect  water  to  rise  above  its  own 
sources.  Woman  becomes  the  citadel  of  religious 
morality  once  she  is  Christian ;  the  natural  refinements 
of  her  nature  and  the  mother  instinct  for  the  preserva- 
tion of  her  young  make  her  so.  "There  is  not  a  woman 
in  Christendom  that  is  not  under  infinite  obligations 
to  the  Christ,"  says  A.  McLean.  If  women  were 
sensitive  to  the  benefits  that  Christianity  confers 
upon  their  sex,  they  would  not  only  outnumber  the 
men  in  the  churches,  they  would  so  train  their  sons 
in  the  love  of  Christianity,  for  their  mother's  sake, 
that  multitudes  more  of  them  would  pay  a  juster 
tribute  of  respect  to  the  emancipator  of  their  mothers. 
When  Mrs.  Marshman  founded  the  first  school 
for  women  in  India  more  than  a  century  ago,  she  drove 
the  thin  end  of  the  wedge  into  the  bed  rock  of  heathen- 
ism. India  has  produced  some  of  the  most  remarkable 
women  of  the  last  and  present  generations;  but  every 
one  of  them  has  been  educated  in  mission  schools, 
or  has  come  under  the  influence  of  missionaries.  "For 
a  woman  to  be  without  ability  is  her  virtue,"  was  a 
Chinese  proverb,  but  a  Chinese  woman's  journal 
to-day  declares,  "The  woman  who  remains  in  ignorance 

165 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

wrongs  not  only  herself,  but  her  family  and  her  coun- 
try." "What  women  these  Christians  have,"  cried 
the  teacher  of  Chrysostom  of  old,  and  Mozoomdar 
wrote  the  same  back  to  India  when  he  attended  the 
Congress  of  Religions  in  Chicago.  In  Cairo  there 
was  recently  held  a  great  mass  meeting  of  women 
at  which  a  princess  made  the  leading  address.  They 
demanded  that  the  harem  be  overthrown,  the  veil 
discarded,  and  that  they  have  the  right  to  give  their 
own  hands  in  wedlock.  The  schools  for  girls  have 
not  wrought  in  vain  in  Egypt;  even  men  who  were 
bitterly  opposed  to  them  now  desire  their  graduates  as 
wives  for  their  sons.  The  Moslem  girls  of  Syria  were 
formerly  married  at  the  age  of  twelve,  but  the  Christian 
school  has  so  wrought  among  them  that  few  are  now 
married  before  fifteen,  while  the  Christian  girls  wait 
until  they  are  eighteen  or  twenty;  thus  is  given  another 
concrete  instance  of  the  social  leaven  at  work  in  the 
mass,  through  the  influence  of  a  minority  who  are 
under  thralldom  to  the  principles  of  the  gospel.  In 
Siam  the  Minister  of  Education  said  that  it  was  through 
the  influence  of  missionary  schools,  and  the  work  of 
Christian  women  in  teaching  girls,  that  schools  for 
them  were  founded  in  Siam  and  supported  by  the 
government.  In  Korea  the  rapidly  growing  Chris- 
tian community  can  not  get  enough  teachers  to  in- 
struct all  their  children;  for  the  new  found  faith  opens 
their  natural  hearts,  and  they  desire  all  their  children 
educated  without  reference  to  sex.  In  China  one-half 
of  the  Christian  women  learn  to  read,  though  they 
are  not  converted  until  mature.  "Your  Bible  must 
have  been  written  by  a  woman,"  said  one  of  them, 

166 


EDUCATION 

"it  says  so  many  kind  things  about  women."  The 
missionary  does  not  confine  his  instruction  to  the 
school  room;  the  church  itself  becomes  a  school  and 
the  lesson  is  carried  into  the  home  itself  by  the  hands 
of  those  faithful  women  who  do  the  effective  evangel- 
ism of  home  visitation.  Mrs.  Montgomery  says  the 
"woman's  club"  seems  to  follow  Christianity  all  over 
the  earth  and  tells  of  one  in  Portuguese  West  Africa, 
to  which  scores  of  the  native  women  come,  some  walking 
as  much  as  one  hundred  miles  to  attend.  They  talk 
over  all  those  home  problems  that  women  in  our  own 
land  talk  over  when  they  come  together  in  their 
mothers'  meetings,  and  no  more  effective  civilizing 
work  could  be  done  than  that  of  guiding  their  minds  in 
the  discovery  of  humane  ways  of  caring  for  their  chil- 
dren, and  in  teaching  them  that  cleanliness  which  is 
next  to  Godliness. 

The  education  that  is  given  on  the  mission  field 
must  be  of  the  practical  sort  which  fits  the  pupil 
to  live  in  the  midst  of  her  native  surroundings,  and 
to  grapple  with  local  problems.  The  missionary  does  not 
build  a  great  church  edifice  after  the  type  of  modern 
Western  architecture,  and  stand  up  in  it  to  preach  to 
a  people  who  have  never  learned  what  a  church  edifice 
is;  he  begins  at  their  hearts  and  leads  them  along  the 
upward  way  until  he  can  lead  them  into  the  church 
which  they  may  build  with  their  own  hands.  So  the 
education  of  heathen  women  must  begin  with  their 
own  problems  and  possibilities;  to  educate  them  out 
of  their  environment  would  be  to  waste  time  and  lose 
opportunity  as  well  as  to  make  miserable  the  victims 
of  mistaken  method.     It  is  no  use  to  cry  out  against 

167 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

the  position  in  which  she  is  placed  and  butt  the  head 
of    idealism    against    the    stone    wall    of    immemorial 
custom.     It  is  better  to  overthrow  it  by  the  disin- 
tegrating force  of  new  ideals  in  the  native  mind.     The 
prejudice  against  woman  becoming  a  public  personage 
was  respected  by  Paul  when  he  counseled  the  women 
of  Corinth  to  wear  their  veils.     The  women  of  Turkey 
took  the  same  counsel   to  themselves,   in  the  larger 
interests  of  reform,  and  resumed  the  veils  they  threw 
off  when  freedom  first  came.     They  will  all  the  more 
surely  be  able  to  put  them  off  in  the  end.     The  native 
ideals  of  woman's  place  in  the  home  furnish  the  best 
channels  for  operation,  and  to  make  her  a  better  home- 
keeper  and  a  companion  of  her  husband,  to  compel 
his  respect  for  her  and  give  her  ability  to  rear  her 
children  with  competence,  is  to  put  dynamite  under 
the    granite    walls    of    pagan    custom.     An  educated 
womanhood  means  the  end  of  concubinage  and  po- 
lygamy and  the  gradual  attainment  of  her  right  to 
refuse   her   hand   in   wedlock.     Paganism   makes   her 
either  a  drudge  or  a  toy.     The  first  schools  for  the 
daughters  of  nobility  and  for  the  higher  castes  found 
parents  unwilling  that  the  girls  should  be  taught  do- 
mestic arts;   they  were   to  be  the  toys  of  rich  men. 
The  school  brought  a  new  idea  of  her  place  as  a  re- 
sponsible factor  in  home  life,  and  raised  her  from  the 
position  of  a  beautifully  feathered  bird  in  the  cage 
to  that  of  a  mature  and  responsible  wife  and  mother. 
These  women  are  now  founding  schools  for  their  own 
sex,  such  as  Miss  Tsuda's  in  Tokio,  and  Ramabai's 
in   Poona,   and   are   editing  journals   advocating   the 
freedom   of   their   kind.     In   Peking,   a   Mrs.    Chang 

168 


EDUCATION 

edits  a  woman's  daily,  devoted  to  all  the  reforms  that 
the  most  progressive  Chinese  women  desire.  There 
must  be  highly  educated  leaders  who  can  lead  the 
minds  of  their  sisters  and  do  the  work  of  teachers 
and  physicians,  but  the  masses  of  women  must  make 
homes,  and  the  missionary  seeks  to  make  of  them  such 
home-keepers  that  the  hemes  will  be  the  transforming 
places  of  a  new  generation.  There  are  not  enough 
of  the  former  as  yet,  and  it  is  good  missionary  policy 
to  train  a  host  of  native  women  to  lead  their  kind  into 
the  higher  life,  for  the  most  benign  foreign  Christian 
can  not  so  search  the  heart  of  a  people  as  can  one  of 
their  own  race. 

5.     Education  as  an  Evangelizing  Agency. 

"When  the  infant  goes  to  school,  his  father  will 
soon  follow  him  to  church,"  said  a  French  missionary. 
The  kindergarten  and  primary  school  have  been  the 
fruitful  source  of  many  conversions  to  Christianity. 
They  have  trained  up  a  generation  of  children  with 
respect  for  the  faith  and  with  minds  well  rilled  with 
the  ideals  of  Christ,  and  they  have  opened  the  under- 
standing and  won  the  hearts  of  many  parents.  Among 
the  Karens  60%  of  the  present-day  members  of  the 
church  were  won  through  the  schools.  Eugene  Stock, 
head  of  the  great  Church  Missionary  Society,  and  one 
of  the  greatest  authorities  on  missions,  says  that  in 
India  the  schools  conducted  by  the  missionaries  have 
brought  a  greater  number  into  the  church  than  all 
other  agencies  combined.  In  Japan  high  school  in- 
struction has  proved  the  most  fertile  evangelistic 
field.     The  age  of  adolescence  is  the  fruitful  period 

169 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

for  reaping  religious  convictions.  Missions  would 
do  well  to  make  all  possible  of  this  stage  of  instruction. 
The  churches  at  home  are  learning  from  modern 
psychology  that  adolescence,  or  the  high-school  age 
of  youth,  is  the  time  of  life  when  ideals  reign  most 
supremely  in  the  mind,  and  when  young  men  and 
women  put  their  instruction  into  action  most  readily. 
They  are  casting  off  from  the  moorings  of  paternal 
authority  and  turning  out  into  the  seas  of  self-reliance 
and  independent  action;  it  is  the  revolutionary  period 
of  life,  the  turning  time.  A  thousand  high  and  middle 
schools  in  China  to-day  would  reap  a  mature  fruitage 
of  educated  and  self-reliant  men  for  the  service  of  the 
cause  to-morrow.  The  Doshisha  students  are  under 
such  educational  management  as  are  the  students 
of  Yale  and  Columbia,  i.  e.,  the  school  is  Christian 
but  not  denominational,  and  is  conducted  for  the  pur- 
poses of  a  broad  education  and  not  for  that  of  con- 
version, yet  the  influence  is  such  that  one-third  of  all 
are  baptized  before  they  finish  their  course.  This 
is  really  a  remarkable  record  when  we  consider  that 
the  students  come  so  largely  from  Buddhist  homes, 
and  from  parents  who,  howsoever  much  they  may  be 
adapting  their  lives  to  the  Christian  way  of  thinking, 
do  not  consider  that  it  is  at  all  necessary  or  possible 
for  them  to  unite  with  the  infant  church.  In  some 
of  the  mission  schools  of  Japan  as  high  as  65%  of  the 
pupils  and  95%  of  the  graduates  become  Christians. 
In  all  fields  there  have  been  more  conversions  among  the 
educated  classes  during  the  past  decade  than  ever 
before.  Through  the  schools,  the  Christian  theory 
of  things,  and  the  whole  body  of  Christian  history 

170 


EDUCATION 

and  philosophy  is  getting  into  the  minds  of  the  people, 
and  all  are  drawn  nearer  the  Christian  conception 
of  life.  Christianity  is  no  longer  a  strange  and  de- 
spised religion  because  of  its  being  a  faith  not  compre- 
hended. In  Livingstonia  one-half  the  church  members 
are  the  direct  product  of  the  schools.  The  evangelist 
may  sow  the  best  of  seed  in  unprepared  soil,  and  it  may 
be  unable  to  root  deeply  into  life  for  the  very  lack  of 
a  prepared  heart.  Evangelism,  as  conducted  on  the 
mission  field,  is  a  matter  of  instruction;  the  preacher 
teaches,  and  before  he  baptizes  his  inquirer  he  ex- 
amines him  closely.  But  many  can  not  hear  because 
their  ears  are  deafened  with  the  discordant  voices  of 
old  superstitions,  and  their  hearts  are  hardened  with 
vice. 

Education  is  almost  the  only  way  of  reaching  the 
high  castes  and  the  Moslems.  Duff  founded  his  col- 
lege because  of  this  fact.  He  found  the  proud  Brah- 
man inaccessible  to  preaching  but  a  possible  student 
under  the  tender  of  mature  instruction,  for  he  is  an 
educated  man  and  honors  learning.  The  same  thing 
is  true  of  the  literati  of  China.  The  Samurai  of  Japan 
have  been  the  most  fruitful  class  for  the  effective 
evangel  of  education.  Their  devotion  to  learning 
led  them  to  the  mission  school,  and  as  they  turned 
their  backs  upon  the  past  they  opened  their  minds 
to  the  mature  lesson  of  Christianity.  The  Moslem 
man  is  supposed  to  read  the  Koran;  it  is  a  religious 
duty.  He  may  be  uneducated  but  be  able  to  pick 
out  the  Arabic  of  his  sacred  book.  In  Nigeria  it  was 
found  that  natives  who  knew  not  a  word  of  Arabic 
were  so  drilled  that  they  could  pronounce  the  words 

171 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

of  the  Koran,  though  they  knew  not  what  one  of  them 
meant.  But  education  destroys  the  Koran.  Literary 
criticism  pulls  down  its  every  citadel  of  authority 
as  it  does  that  of  the  sacred  books  of  India,  stripping 
them  of  the  husks  of  myth,  legend,  and  puerility, 
to  say  nothing  of  the  unspeakable  impurities  there  is 
in  them — so  impure  that  the  English  government  in 
India  forbade  the  printing  of  English  translations 
of  some  of  them.  The  contradictions,  fatalism,  su- 
perstitions, and  gross  materialism  of  the  Koran  are 
revealed  to  the  educated  Moslem,  and,  while  he  may 
keep  a  form  of  fealty  to  it,  he  will  not  be  longer  a  fanat- 
ical and  intolerant  worshiper  of  its  very  covers.  His 
mind  is  broadened,  his  old  intolerance  broken  down, 
his  prejudices  replaced  by  ideas,  he  imbibes  the  spirit 
of  Christian  charity  and  becomes  a  new  type  of  folk 
in  the  midst  of  Moslem  society.  To  wear  down  the 
fanaticism  of  Islam,  to  give  the  Mohammedan  world 
a  fairer  view  of  the  Christian  world  after  thirteen 
centuries  of  conflict,  to  put  the  spirit  of  the  old  Cru- 
saders behind  the  gospel  of  the  love  of  Christ,  is  the 
best  that  can  be  hoped  for  in  the  present,  perhaps, 
but  it  is  none  the  less  a  true  evangelism,  for  it  is  pre- 
paring for  a  time  when  conversions  will  come  by  the 
thousands.  There  are  to-day  some  5,000  Moslem 
students  in  mission  schools.  Not  many  of  them  will 
actually  join  the  church,  the  prejudice  is  yet  so  great, 
and  the  fanaticisn  that  lingers  is  sufficient  to  forbid 
instruction  in  Christian  history  and  doctrine,  though 
it  is  given  in  some  schools,  but  all  of  them  will  be  nearer 
the  goal  and  they  will  make  a  new  generation  of  open 
minds. 

172 


3*  I  Jw%, 


The  First  Class  of  Christian  Inquirers  in  Tibet.  Dr.  Shelton 
and  Mr.  Ogden  baptized  the  first  Christians  in  that  land 
from  this  number. 


A 


dvanced  Class  in  Urumia  College,  Persia.  Moslems,  Jews, 
and  Christians  are  here  drawn  together,  and  ancient  hates 
are  lost  under  missionary  instruction. 


EDUCATION 

Education  is  an  evangelism  of  preparation  where 
it  does  not  directly  bring  the  pupil  into  the  church. 
It  cultivates  soil  for  the  sowing  even  where  the  seed 
of  direct  Christian  fealty  does  not  take  root.     A  noted 
English  evangelist  conducted   a  successful   campaign 
among  the  missions  of  Ceylon,  but  found  that  nearly 
every  one  of  his  converts  had  been  in  the  mission  schools. 
The  new  can  not  always  effectively  enter  until  much  of 
the  old  has  been  purged  out.     The  second  generation 
does  not  have  to  surmount  the  old  walls  of  heathenism. 
Real  Pentecosts  are  realized  after  the  school  has  broken 
down  the  old  barriers  and  changed  the  whole  mental 
make-up.     We    have   a   Christian    literature,   breathe 
a    Christian    atmosphere,    inherit    Christian    customs, 
live  in  the  presence  of  churches,  grow  up  in  Christian 
or  semi-Christian   homes,   and   the  golden   thread  of 
Christian   philosophy  runs  through  all  we  learn  and 
think.     It  is  not  so  in  the  non-Christian  world.     The 
mind  of  the  cultured  pagan  is  filled  with  the  ideals 
and  practices  of  his  faith,  and  the  social  custom  that 
has  been  fixed  upon  him  by  immemorial  habit  is  never 
questioned.     The  savage  heathen  mind  is  undeveloped ; 
he  is  the  creature  of  dread  superstition;  nature  is  full 
of  demons,  and  religion  is  a  thing  of  fear.     He  has  no 
scientific  processes  of  thinking  and  is  a  sublime  egoist. 
His  social  life  is  narrowed  to  the  necessities  of  his 
selfish  career  and  no  man  trusts  another  for  good. 
The  children  of  the  mission  schools  are  given  a  new 
mind,  a  new  conception  of  the  universe  and  of  the 
past,   and   the  seeds  of  a  better  life  philosophy  are 
planted  in  their  thinking.     The  result  is  an  accessibil- 
ity to  Christian  truth  on  the  part  of  many  who  do 

173 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSION 

not  possess  the  spiritual  enterprise  necessary  to  ac- 
quire the  faith  that  comes  with  a  proclamation  of 
the  Word.  A  minority  do  possess  that  spiritual 
enterprise  and  have  hearts  so  open  that  the  evangel 
grips  them  and  changes  their  lives,  their  instruction 
following  their  conversion;  but  the  majority  need  the 
soil  of  their  souls  tilled  and  prepared  for  comprehension 
of  the  truth.  The  school  has  thus  been  one  of  the 
most  fertile  of  evangelistic  agencies.  Bishop  Tucker, 
of  Uganda,  tells  of  their  evangelistic  garnering  during 
the  five  years  from  1902  to  1907;  they  baptized  36,000, 
or  more  than  7,000  annually,  and  so  many  enrolled 
as  inquirers  that  it  was  with  difficulty  they  could 
give  them  instruction.  In  South  India  to-day,  after 
mature  schooling  and  a  generation  of  successful  work, 
there  are  so  many  pressing  for  entrance  into  the  church 
that  the  missionaries  are  actually  not  able  to  give 
the  necessary  preliminary  examinations  as  fast  as 
they  are  requested;  single  fields  have  had  as  high  as 
3,000  accessions  in  a  year.  John  Mott  conducted 
an  evangelistic  campaign  among  the  students  of 
Tokio  that  brought  several  hundred  into  the  church, 
and  has  recently  addressed  student  meetings  in  Egypt 
and  among  Mohammedans  that  taxed  the  capacity 
of  the  largest  theaters  and  turned  many  away.  It  is 
safe  to  say  that  the  faith  of  the  Bishop  of  Madras, 
that  50,000,000  low  caste  men  of  India  are  ripe  for 
the  gospel,  would  be  wrought  into  results  if  there 
were  enough  mission  schools  to  reach  them  all.  The 
rising  tide  of  universal  intelligence  in  India  is  unloos- 
ing them  from  the  bonds  that  enthralled  their  minds 
and  led  them  to  accept  their  portion  as  one  of  the  dis- 

174 


EDUCATION 

pensations  of  fate.  If  they  could  be  led  to  see  that, 
under  Christianity,  there  is  no  caste,  but  an  open  way 
to  make  themselves  the  real  saving  salt  of  India,  they 
would  bring  a  democracy  to  the  nation  that  would 
overturn  all  her  traditions  and  give  her  a  basis  for 
real  independence.  Every  chapel  in  Korea  is  also  a 
schoolhouse,  and  the  evangelistic  wave  that  is  sweeping 
that  nation  is  not  of  the  perfervid  variety,  but  based 
upon  a  real  discipleship,  a  mind  that  is  instructed 
in  the  elements  of  Christian  truth.  Dr.  Laws,  of 
Livingstonia,  says  their  vital  evangelism  is  in  their 
schools  where  16,000  pupils  are  daily  taught  Christian 
living.  To  leaven  the  social  life  of  a  people  is  to  con- 
duct a  very  real  evangelism,  and  the  reaction  upon 
the  life  of  the  church  is  sure  and  permanent.  "A 
sound  Christian  is  always  a  well  instructed  Christian," 
says  Dr.  Hetherwick,  of  the  Blantyre  Mission. 


175 


CHAPTER  V 

The  Missionary  and  the  Affairs  of  the 
World 

1.    The  Missionary  and  Other  Powers  of  Prog- 
ress. 

"History  shows  no  example  of  mere  civilization 
elevating  a  sunken  people,"  says  Dr.  Warneck.  The 
heroic  James  Chalmers  said  he  traveled  all  the  South 
Seas,  saw  every  kind  of  people,  shared  bed  and  board 
alike  of  savage  and  civilized,  and  that  he  never  saw 
one  place  where  mere  commerce  or  political  inter- 
ference had  by  themselves  taken  positive  and  per- 
manent good  to  the  child-peoples.  The  story  of  the 
mingling  of  East  and  West  is  a  tale  of  vice  and  crime, 
where  it  has  not  been  relieved  by  the  influences  of 
those  men  who  have  not  gone  for  the  purposes  of  selfish 
gain.  Gladstone  said,  "European  intercourse  with 
the  uncivilized  has,  without  exception,  been  disastrous 
unless  attended  by  missionary  exertions."  The  port 
cities  of  the  Orient  are  famous  for  their  wickedness; 
when  two  races  meet  they  offer  each  other  the  worst 
they  possess.  The  missionary  is  the  one  man  who 
goes  without  selfish  intent,  and  whose  determination 
is  to  take  social  redemption  and  every  other  reform 
that  will  redound  to  the  good  of  the  people  of  the  land. 
The  trader  goes  for  gain,  and  the  soldier  with  a  mission 

176 


MISSIONARY  AND  AFFAIRS  OF  THE  WORLD 

that  compels  him  to  look  upon  the  native  as  an  inferior, 
fit  only  for  subjection.  The  missionary  seeks  to 
understand  the  native  man  and  to  enter  into  a  sym- 
pathetic relationship.  He  denies  himself  all  the  multi- 
tudinous opportunities  that  a  new  area  may  offer 
in  way  of  personal  gain,  through  the  use  of  his  expert 
knowledge  of  native  needs,  and  devotes  himself  to  an 
unselfish  service.  The  trader  may  sell  rum,  or  buy 
labor,  or  take  advantage  of  ignorance  to  charge  ten 
or  fifty  prices  for  materials  that  are  really  of  little 
worth,  but  the  missionary  warns  against  such  ne- 
farious traffic  and  teaches  the  victim  of  it  how  to  supply 
his  own  needs.  Chulalangkorn,  the  late  progressive 
king  of  Siam,  said,  "The  American  missionaries  have 
done  more  to  advance  the  welfare  of  my  country  than 
any  other  foreign  influence."  "The  missionaries 
are  doing  more  for  the  civilizing  and  educating  of  the 
masses  of  the  East  than  any  other  agency  whatso- 
ever," said  a  British  M.  P. 

The  missionary  can  not  be  a  political  emissary. 
He  does  not  interfere  in  matters  of  government,  but 
he  can  intercede.  His  intercession  has  been  denomi- 
nated interference  by  those  who  found  their  selfish  de- 
signs frustrated,  and  it  is  to  such  as  them  most  of  the 
charges  against  missionaries  can  be  traced.  In  savage 
lands  he  is  regularly  called  upon  to  intercede  for 
the  poor  victims  of  savage  injustice.  He  rescues 
slaves,  saves  women  from  cruelty,  children  from  de- 
sertion, arbitrates  in  personal  disputes,  and  advises 
those  who  plead  for  a  better  order  of  things.  He  goes 
to  soften  asperities,  mould  hearts  to  a  love  of  com- 
munity peace,   found  ideas  of  democracy,   and   give 

12  177 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

new  well  springs  of  action.  Through  these  things 
he  exerts  a  vast,  indirect  influence  upon  government 
and  society.  He  rarely  joins  the  revolutionaries, 
but  the  lessons  he  teaches  compel  progress,  and  there 
are  times  when  the  masses  must  suffer  death  or  fight 
for  their  right  to  live  in  peace  with  their  new  ideals; 
such  times  are  rare,  and  the  arts  of  peacefulness  the 
missionary  uses  usually  prevent  any  outbreaks  of 
violence  over  his  revolutionary  principles.  .  In  Korea 
all  missionary  influence  was  against  armed  resistance 
to  Japanese  occupation;  it  would  have  been  suicidal, 
and  the  experienced  missioners  thought  the  better 
way  was  to  submit  to  the  inevitable  and  move  for  the 
best  possible  terms  in  equity  and  native  right  to  a 
part  in  public  affairs.  This  was  not  done  on  behalf 
of  imperialism,  but  on  behalf  of  peace,  the  saving  of 
life,  and  a  more  secure  freedom  in  the  future. 

In  implanting  ideas  of  democracy  and  personal 
right  the  missionary  roots  into  the  hearts  of  men  in- 
fluences that  make  it  impossible  for  them  to  submit 
supinely  to  oppression  and  injustice.  The  leaven 
of  ideas  ferments  the  lump,  and  men  come  into  their 
own.  The  Christian  community  becomes  a  sort  of 
Puritan  nucleus  in  the  old  society;  it  stands  for  justice 
and  righteousness,  and  human  nature  responds  to  the 
call  for  more  benign  rulership,  once  the  possibility 
of  its  realization  is  shown.  In  a  savage  tribe  any 
progressive  is  liable  to  be  fixed  upon  by  the  witch 
doctor  as  a  danger  to  his  dread  power,  and  made  to 
suffer  for  any  innovations;  if  in  a  more  cultivated, 
though  static  civilization,  he  is  feared  as  an  innovator 
who  threatens  revered  customs,  and  does  violence  to 

178 


MISSIONARY  AND  AFFAIRS  OF  THE  WORLD 

the  memory  of  the  fathers  and  sages,  and  is  quickly 
suppressed  or  violently  put  out  of  the  way.  The  late 
Empress  Dowager,  before  she  accepted  the  inevitable 
through  the  failure  of  the  Boxer  rebellion,  had  sundry 
editors  executed  by  slicing  them  up  a  few  inches  at  a 
time,  because  they  dared  turn  reformer,  and  the  young 
emperor  is  known  to  have  been  a  royal  prisoner  until 
the  day  of  his  death. 

The  cultivating  of  ideals  of  democracy  and  per- 
sonal right  lift  a  people  into  self-assertive  integrity, 
and  they  evolve  for  themselves  a  better  order  of  po- 
litical and  social  life.  Efforts  to  force  upon  them 
things  that  may  be  for  their  benefit,  but  for  which 
they  are  not  prepared,  and  which  they  do  not  under- 
stand, are  liable  to  be  disastrous.  This  is  the  danger 
of  colonial  rule.  Superstitions,  traditions,  and  ancient 
customs  are  deeply  grounded  into  their  nature,  and 
it  is  more  than  the  task  of  a  day  to  uproot  them  with- 
out destroying  the  community  life.  Poor  bonds  as 
they  may  be,  they  are  nevertheless  the  bonds  that  give 
a  social  control,  and  with  all  their  evils  society  will 
disintegrate  if  they  are  crushed  without  substituting 
better. 

It  has  been  charged  that  the  missionary,  by  taking 
white  contact,  takes  ultimate  death  to  the  primitive 
peoples,  that  clothing  and  industry  are  their  enemies, 
and  that  changed  habits  unfit  them  for  their  environ- 
ment. Where  the  missionary  has  been  left  to  create 
his  new  order  without  the  interference  of  other  whites, 
there  has  been  a  steady  increase  in  population.  Such 
isolated  islands  in  the  South  Seas  show  from  one  to 
three   per  cent  increase  in   numbers  annually.     The 

179 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

charge  that  the  Hawaiians  are  dying  out  is  refuted 
by  missionaries  who  have  lately  made  a  thorough  in- 
vestigation of  the  subject;  they  are  not  only  increasing 
in  numbers,  but  in  wealth,  and  in  their  interest  in 
Christianity.  Where  governmental  interference  has 
modified  the  efforts  of  the  missionary  to  create  a  self- 
supporting  people  of  initiative  and  industry,  by  making 
them  recipients  of  lands  they  did  not  need,  and  of 
pensions  they  did  not  earn,  encouraging  them  thus 
to  live  in  idleness,  they  have  not  kept  pace  with  civil- 
ization; most  of  the  American  Indians  and  many  of 
the  Maoris  of  New  Zealand  are  examples  of  this, 
though  there  are  many  individuals  who  have  arisen 
to  places  of  influence;  Maoris  sit  in  the  legislature  of 
New  Zealand,  and  there  are  instances  of  American 
Indians  arising  to  prominence  in  scholarship  and  states- 
manship. Even  where  the  white  race  has  brought  its 
wholesale  influence  for  good  and  bad,  and  contributed 
so  largely  of  the  latter,  because  the  ignorance  and  child- 
like character  of  primitive  peoples  afford  little  resistance 
to  the  barterers  of  vice,  there  are  virile  qualities  of 
racial  character  that  withstand  the  contact.  There 
are  races  in  South  Africa  that  have  increased  popula- 
tion from  double  to  quadruple  former  numbers  in  a 
single  generation.  It  is  another  pledge  of  missionary 
efficiency  to  learn  that  these  peoples  are  those  which 
he  reached  before  the  trader's  caravan  came,  and  that 
his  ideals  of  temperance  and  personal  integrity  had 
taken  hold.  Civilization  goes  by  war,  politics,  trade, 
or  missions.  Missions  do  not  claim  to  be  the  only 
civilizing  influence,  but  they  do  claim  to  be  the  most 
fundamental    and    unselfish.     The   missionary   is    the 

180 


MISSIONARY  AND  AFFAIRS  OF  THE  WORLD 

only  white  man  who  goes  for  the  first  time  to  a  bar- 
barous or  other  alien  race  for  the  express  purpose 
of  being  their  friends,  and  he  is  the  only  one  of  the 
above  envoys  that  carries  with  him  a  confidence  that 
every  race  can  be  elevated  to  a  plane  of  self-sufficiency, 
and  that  the  benign  influence  of  personal  service  is 
the  greatest  force  for  the  task.  All  the  others,  his- 
torically, have  made  subject  peoples,  and  exploited 
them  for  gain;  the  missionary  alone  vicariously  bears 
their  burdens  and  has  faith  that  they  will  become  suf- 
ficient unto  themselves  by  instruction  and  experience. 
He  does  not  deny  the  power  of  politics  and  trade,  he 
welcomes  them,  but  he  would  not  deliver  any  people 
over  to  any  influence  that  would  make  mart  of  them, 
or  fail  to  bring  good  tidings  of  peace.  His  implanting 
of  the  fundamental  principles  of  manhood  and  social 
good  carry  his  influence  into  all  those  more  remote, 
though  inevitable  movements  of  government,  law, 
commerce,  and  material  advancement  that  follow  an 
awakened  consciousness  and  are  used  in  the  making 
of  an  era  of  progress. 

2.  The  Political  Influence  of  the  Missionary. 
The  missionary  creates  a  new  type  of  citizenship. 
Like  Paul  of  old,  he  is  loyal  to  the  powers  that  be  and 
renders  Caesar  his  dues,  but  his  great  purpose  is  that 
God  shall  have  his  portion.  His  work  is  the  creation 
of  a  sense  of  personal  freedom  and  of  social  responsi- 
bility, and  the  putting  of  a  good  conscience  into  all 
men.  Non-Christian  governments  are  generally  arbi- 
trary; there  is  little  sense  of  citizenship;  rule  is  from 
above,  and  governments  do  not  derive  just  power" 

181 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

from  the  consent  of  the  governed.  All  arbitrary 
rulership  partakes  of  the  tyrannical,  and,  though 
democracy  has  its  corruptions,  oligarchies  are  no- 
toriously for  the  benefit  of  the  few.  Buckle  says  no 
man  ever  received  great  arbitrary  powers  without 
abusing  them.  In  China  all  centers  in  the  emperor, 
who  is  "The  Son  of  Heaven,"  and  theoretically,  the 
father  of  his  people;  each  province  has  a  viceroy,  who 
is,  if  a  strong  character,  all  but  supreme  in  his  state; 
under  him  are  a  series  of  officials,  each  with  absolute 
powers  in  his  realm,  and  accountable  only  to  the  man 
next  above  him ;  there  are  nine  grades  of  these  officials, 
reaching  from  the  emperor  down  to  the  local  magis- 
trate. The  local  magistrate  is  a  petty  despot  over 
the  populace;  to  them  he  is  virtually  king,  and  his 
authority  is  supreme,  save  as  exceptional  appeal  may 
be  made  over  his  head.  The  Chinese  were  taught 
a  certain  peculiar  sense  of  democracy  by  Confucius, 
and  appeal  and  rebellion  are  the  final  resorts.  This 
absolute  officiary  is  notoriously  corrupt.  As  one  of 
them  told  a  traveler,  "We  are  all  worthy  of  execution, 
but  if  the  emperor  took  off  our  heads,  the  next  set 
would  be  as  bad."  The  fault  is  in  the  sense  of  citizen- 
ship. In  the  mission  churches  the  membership  learns 
the  rudiments  of  self-government  and  acquires  a  de- 
mocracy of  spirit  that  makes  them  prize  it.  The 
Viceroy,  Tuan  Fang,  declared  that  "the  awakening 
of  China  may  be  traced  in  no  small  measure  to  the 
hand  of  the  missionary."  He  planted  the  seeds  of 
the  new  order,  and  in  his  education  of  youth  gave  a 
sense  of  freedom  of  personality,  and  of  responsibil- 
ity for  the  universal  welfare,  that  creates  a  genuine 

182 


MISSIONARY  AND  AFFAIRS  OF  THE  WORLD 

patriotism.  Arthur  Smith  says  the  Chinese  had  no 
real  sense  of  patriotism  in  former  days ;  all  officials  were 
looked  upon  as  public  parasites  and  a  necessary  evil; 
the  spirit  of  the  people  was  that  every  man  must  look 
out  for  himself  at  any  odds,  and  as  a  result  government 
was  not  a  public  concern  so  much  as  a  necessity  that 
had  to  be  endured,  and  in  which  each  would  do  well 
to  make  the  best  of  it  for  personal  benefit.  To-day 
the  new  patriotism  has  taken  hold  of  the  educated 
young  men  with  the  power  of  a  religious  zeal.  It  was 
given  inception  and  has  been  cultivated  in  all  mission 
schools,  and  every  influence  that  the  missionary  could 
bring  to  bear  has  been  in  its  favor.  It  is  not  confined 
to  port  cities  and  places  where  China  has  come  into 
contact  with  material  civilization;  the  west  of  China 
is  furnishing  many  of  the  most  progressive  men,  and 
is  believed  by  residents  in  that  section  to  be  responding 
even  more  rapidly  than  any  other  to  the  call  of  the 
new  era.  "The  missionaries,"  says  Tuan  Fang, 
"have  borne  the  light  of  civilization  into  every  nook  and 
corner  of  the  empire."  Dr.  Yen,  Secretary  of  the  Chi- 
nese Legation  at  Washington,  gives  "a  large  part  of  the 
credit  for  instituting  this  wonderful  educational  move- 
ment to  missionary  enterprise  and  foresight."  Of 
missionary  influence  in  Japan,  Prince  Ito  said,  "Japan's 
progress  and  development  are  largely  due  to  the  in- 
fluence of  missionaries,  exerted  in  the  right  direction 
when  Japan  was  first  studying  the  outer  world." 
The  work  of  Guido  Verbeck  has  already  been  noted. 
The  fact  that  the  emperor  conferred  signal  honors 
upon  him  and  that  the  government  buried  him  with 
all  the  tokens  of  national  respect,  testify  eloquently 

183 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

to  his  part  in  its  remaking.  He  has  been  called  "The 
Father   of   the   Japanese    Constitution." 

The  missionary  exerts  a  direct  influence  upon  rulers 
in  many  cases.  The  makers  of  the  new  Japan  made 
Verbeck's  home  their  refuge  for  councils.  Dr.  Under- 
wood's parlor,  in  Korea,  was  the  scene  of  many  con- 
ferences of  the  foremost  men  of  the  kingdom  in  the 
days  of  transition.  Both  these  men,  and  many  others, 
thus  became  privy  councilors  of  the  reform  party, 
and  to  their  credit  always  used  their  positions  to  exert 
an  influence  that  would  make  for  peaceful  revolution; 
they  were  teachers,  not  political  leaders.  When  Ver- 
beck  was  allowed  to  do  nothing  more  than  teach  Eng- 
lish, he  used  the  New  Testament  and  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States  for  his  text-books;  the  lessons 
were  not  lost.  The  Christian  literature  societies 
have  sowed  the  seed  of  all  progressive  ideas  of  en- 
lightenment through  their  translation  and  distribution 
of  books,  and  counted  that  by  such  indirect  methods 
they  were  doing  real  missionary  work  through  doing 
good  to  humanity,  bringing  the  revolutionary  forces 
of  new  ideas  into  the  minds  of  the  leaders  of  a  nation. 
The  late  Emperor  of  China  was  made  a  reformer 
through  books  supplied  by  the  Society  for  the  Diffusion 
of  Christian  Knowledge,  and  his  chief  adviser,  the  great 
reformer  and  exile,  Kang  Yu-Wei,  said,  "I  owe  my 
conversion  to  reform  and  my  knowledge  of  reform  to 
the  writings  of  two  great  missionaries,  Dr.  Timothy 
Richard  and  Dr.  Allen." 

In  barbarous  lands  the  influence  of  the  missionary 
is  as  much  more  direct  as  the  need  is  greater  and  the 
enlightenment  of  the  ruler  less.     "Savages  are  made 

184 


MISSIONARY  AND  AFFAIRS  OF  THE  WORLD 

into  law-abiding  citizens  by  missionaries  better  than 
by  any  other  process,"  said  the  Governor  of  New 
Guinea.  A  British  Commodore  in  the  waters  of  that 
same  savage  island  said,  "These  gentlemen  have  es- 
tablished such  a  hold  over  the  natives  as  many  a 
crowned  head  would  be  glad  to  possess."  Once  the 
missioner  gains  their  confidence,  he  becomes  an  all- 
powerful  influence  in  their  tribal  life.  He  is  called 
upon  to  settle  disputes  between  tribes,  and  wards  off 
many  a  bloody  battle.  The  history  of  heroic,  personal 
interventions  on  behalf  of  peace  would  fill  an  inspiring 
volume.  Savage  justice  scarcely  deserves  the  name; 
it  is  fraught  with  arbitrary  judgment,  if  not  with  trial 
by  some  process  of  superstition  instead  of  upon  the 
merits  of  the  case,  and  the  accused  is  regarded  as  guilty 
until  some  fate  established  his  innocence.  The  mis- 
sionary intercedes  for  justice  and  teaches  the  arts 
of  its  administration  to  the  chieftains.  In  the  South 
Seas  they  wrote  whole  codes,  notably  in  Tahiti  and 
Raiatea,  and  saw  them  adopted  by  the  voice  of  chief- 
tains, and  approved  of  the  people.  Ex-Secretary 
John  Foster  said  that  the  political  reorganization  of 
those  islands  was  almost  entirely  the  work  of  mis- 
sionaries. Whole  communities  were  persuaded  to 
move  from  low  to  high  lands  for  the  sake  of  health, 
were  reorganized  in  government,  given  a  better  type 
of  architecture  and  agriculture,  and  persuaded  to  write 
permanent  pacts  cf  peace  with  ancient  enemies. 
In  Africa  the  missionary  has  to  his  credit  several  re- 
formed governments  among  savage  tribes,  any  one  of 
which  would  be  well  worth  the  whole  missionary  ex- 
ertion in  that  continent.      Khama  the  Good  is  one 

185 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

of  the  notable  names  of  native  African  history.  His 
government  of  the  Bechuannas  has  been  a  model  in 
primitive  control.  He  abolished  slavery,  polygamy, 
and  concubinage,  established  industry,  absolutely 
prohibited  intoxicants,  and  set  up  courts  that  sub- 
stituted justice  by  fair  trial  in  place  of  the  old  bar- 
barities of  trial  by  ordeal  and  the  whims  of  the  witch 
doctor.  There  has  been  no  war  under  his  adminis- 
tration, whereas  before  war  was  the  chief  business  of 
the  people;  the  traveler  has  been  made  safe  anywhere 
in  his  realm,  and  trade  is  carried  on  with  even  more 
sense  of  right  on  behalf  of  the  black  man  than  on 
behalf  of  the  white  man,  who  all  too  often  comes  pre- 
possessed with  the  idea  that  he  is  a  superior  being, 
and  that  it  is  "no  harm  to  cheat  a  nigger."  The  story 
of  Coillard's  influence  over  Lewanika  is  but  little 
less  thrilling  than  that  of  Moffat's  over  Africaner; 
from  a  bloody  and  drunken  despot  he  was  converted 
into  a  sober,  just  ruler,  and  though  not  professing 
Christianity  openly,  as  Khama  and  Daudi  have  done, 
he  lives  well  up  to  its  ethical  code  and  has  transformed 
his  country.  The  transformation  of  Uganda  has  been 
spoken  of  heretofore.  The  influence  of  the  mission- 
aries has  reached  on  out  to  the  west  of  Uganda  and 
made  quite  as  notable  conquests.  Daudi,  king  of 
Toro,  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  of  African  chief- 
tains. He  has  led  his  people  into  new  ways  of  peace, 
and  preaches  Christianity  both  to  them  and  to  neigh- 
boring tribes.  He  has  gone  to  those  with  whom  he 
was  perpetually  at  war,  and,  in  the  name  of  the  new 
peace,  exhorted  them  to  accept  his  way  of  life  and 
government.     Many  such  narratives  could  be  given 

186 


MISSIONARY  AND  AFFAIRS  OF  THE  WORLD 

of  South  Sea  chieftains.  Thokambau,  of  Figi,  was  one 
of  the  most  notable  in  missionary  annals.  He  was  a 
man  of  exceptional  forcefulness  and  had  used  his  power 
up  to  the  limits  of  savage  brutality.  The  list  of  his 
victories  and  of  the  horrible  feasts  he  had  provided 
from  bands  of  prisoners  taken  was  long.  He  lived 
for  a  quarter  of  a  century  as  a  Christian  ruler,  and  saw 
the  new  order  established  over  a  citizenship  that  could 
read  and  write,  and  that  worshiped  the  God  of  peace 
in  peace.  Often  he  looked  upon  the  orphaned  and  the 
widowed  whose  sad  fate  was  of  his  making  in  the  days 
of  his  savagery,  and  wept  in  pleas  for  forgiveness.  It 
is  the  glory  of  the  missioner  that  he  was  able,  in  most 
cases,  to  bring  about  the  change  without  bloodshed, 
though  there  have  been  times  when  the  party  of  re- 
action and  savagery,  because  they  were  the  beneficiaries 
of  the  inequalities  and  cruelties  of  the  old  system,  have 
made  war  upon  the  party  of  peace  and  progress.  In 
such  times  the  cause  of  right  had  to  be  defended,  but 
victory  was  ever  celebrated  with  forgiveness  and  an 
effort  to  win  the  vanquished  to  the  better  way. 

Loyalty  and  a  better  type  of  citizenship  is  ever  the 
missionary's  aim.  When  the  powers  were  threatening 
to  partition  China,  the  missionaries  were  fast  friends 
of  the  empire  and  gave  all  influence  to  its  maintenance. 
During  the  war  with  Russia  the  missionary  body  passed 
strong  resolutions  of  loyalty  to  Japan.  They  were 
among  the  first  to  advocate  repeal  of  "extra  territori- 
ality." In  India  they  have  ever  plead  the  cause  of 
the  people,  if  not  according  to  the  ideals  of  the  more 
radical  political  elements,  at  least  on  behalf  of  justice 
to  the  native  and  a  humane  administration  of  law. 

187 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

British  administrators  give  them  credit  for  suggesting 
many  emendations  of  law  that  were  for  the  popular 
good,  made  possible  through  their  thorough  and  sym- 
pathetic understanding  of  the  common  life.  In 
Korea  they  exerted  all  influence  in  favor  of  a  purer 
government,  and  native  Christians  refused  to  submit 
to  the  demands  of  corrupt  officials,  though  they  scrupu- 
lously obeyed  the  law  and  paid  the  legal  tax.  Their 
action  was  strong  in  calling  attention  to  official  cor- 
ruption, and  when  the  revolution  began  it  was  held 
on  its  course  through  the  influence  of  a  club  that  was 
predominantly  Christian,  loyal  to  the  king,  and  per- 
sistent in  its  demands  for  reform  at  his  hands. 

The  missionary  is  not  a  political  emissary,  but  the 
welfare  of  a  people  is  so  intimately  bound  up  with  its 
political  destiny,  that  in  influencing  them  for  a  better 
manhood  and  more  humane  ways  of  life  he  must 
indirectly,  at  least,  influence  their  political  destiny. 
That  influence  is  positive  for  a  larger  participation  of 
the  common  people  in  government,  and,  through  the 
popular  education  given  in  mission  schools,  there  is 
raised  up  a  generation  of  men  who  are  able  both  to 
obtain  it  and  maintain  it.  The  missionary  does  not 
go  to  create  republics,  but  he  does  go  to  create  a  citizen- 
ship, and  whether  the  form  of  government  be  repub- 
lican or  monarchical,  it  must  be  more  democratic  as 
the  masses  rise  in  intelligence  and  personal  responsibil- 
ity, and  the  change  will  always  be  ushered  in  by  the 
arts  of  peaceful  revolution  if  the  influence  of  the  mis- 
sioner  is  dominant  in  the  councils  of  reform. 


188 


MISSIONARY  AND  AFFAIRS  OF  THE  WORLD 


3.     Making  Two  Blades  of  Grass  Grow  Where 
One  Grew  Before. 

Booker  T.  Washington  said  that  if  he  had  to  choose 
between  sending  his  graduates   to  Africa   to   preach 
salvation  in  another  world,  or  to  teach  the  natives  how 
to  make  two  blades  of  grass  grow  where  one  grew  be- 
fore, he  would  choose  the  latter.     He  believes  that  it 
does   little   good   to   preach   an   otherworldliness   and 
leave  men  in  the  old  sordid  environment  of  this  present 
world.     Fortunately  there  is  no  such  alternative.     We 
no  longer  hear  the  plea  that  we  must  hasten  to  the 
heathen  because  so  many  millions  are  plunging  an- 
nually into  an  eternal  abyss  of  fire.     Not  more  than 
twenty  years  ago  some  of  our  greatest  boards  made 
belief  in  that  sort  of  doctrine  an  essential  in  a  mission- 
ary candidate.     To-day  we  go,  as  Dr.  Clark  puts  it 
in  his  little  volume  on  "A  Study  of  Christian  Missions," 
to  "plant"  rather  than  to  "rescue."     Jesus  did  not 
come  merely  to  save  a  few  out  of  the  world,  but  to  save 
the  world.     So  the  missionary  goes  to  save  individuals 
and  through  them  to  save  a  world,  and  he  has  faith 
that  the  little  band  of  "Jesus  men,"  as  they  are  gener- 
ally called,  will  be  the  saving  salt  of  society.     Every- 
where he  makes  two  blades  of  grass  grow  where  one 
grew  before,  and,  increasing  the  capacity  of  men  to 
appreciate  and  use  the  material  factors  of  civilization, 
he  builds  up  a  self-supporting  society  of  more  advanced 
grade,  and  creates  an  environment  that  makes  it  pos- 
sible for  them  to  enjoy  the  benefits  of  progress. 

The  missionary  creates  new  wants.     Without  the 
desire  for  things  not  yet  possessed,  the  more  primitive 

189 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

and  backward  civilizations  could  not  be  lifted  beyond 
their  present  attainments.  The  primitive  man  is  not 
a  creature  of  many  wants ;  he  is  satisfied  with  provision 
for  immediate  needs,  therefore  he  is  not  industrious. 
The  chase  and  warfare  seem  to  him  more  direct  means 
of  satisfying  his  desires,  so  he  resorts  to  those  sporadic 
and  cruel  arts  and  despises  the  cultivation  of  nature 
as  the  work  of  those  who  can  not  fight  and  hunt. 
This  indignity  done,  the  art  of  labor  condemns  woman- 
kind to  the  status  of  a  slave,  military  necessity  creates 
despotism,  and  the  tribe  is  condemned  to  penury  or 
starvation,  if  it  be  not  successful  in  its  barbarous 
enterprises.  The  missionary  changes  the  ideals  of 
economy  and  substitutes  honest  toil  for  rapine,  teaching 
the  native  that  it  is  easier,  and  much  more  sure,  for 
him  to  cultivate  nature  and  become  the  recipient  of 
her  lavish  gifts  than  it  is  to  prey  upon  man  and  wild 
beast,  and  put  his  livelihood  under  a  gamble  of  luck, 
or  at  the  stake  of  battle. 

Among  primitive  peoples  especially  this  lays  upon 
the  missionary  the  necessity  of  training  whole  popula- 
tions in  the  arts  of  industry.  The  work  of  industrial 
schools  has  been  treated  in  a  former  chapter.  The 
industrial  work  of  the  missionary  is  not  confined  to 
that  of  the  industrial  school;  it  is  limited  only  to  the 
industrial  needs  of  the  Christian  community  he  founds. 
The  poverty-stricken  methods  of  industrial  economy 
must  all  be  revised  and  the  implements  of  more  pro- 
gressive ways  introduced.  We  have  already  seen  how 
thousands  of  plows  were  introduced  into  the  fields  of 
East  Africa  by  the  Livingstonia,  Blantyre,  and  Zam- 
besi missions.     The  same  thing  was  done  in  India,  and 

190 


MISSIONARY  AND  AFFAIRS  OF  THE  WORLD 

small  American   plows   replaced   the  ancient  pointed 
stick  by  tens  of  thousands.     The  missionary  adapted 
looms  and  cotton  gins  to  native  necessities  in  India, 
and  introduced   them  into  Africa  together  with  the 
cultivation  of  cotton.      The  Scotch  mission  on  Lake 
Nyassa  started  coffee  growing,  and  wheat  was  intro- 
duced into  Uganda,  New  Zealand,  and  in  many  other 
fields.     In  India  a  superior  method  of  milling  the  grain 
was    taught    and    the    machinery    necessary    brought 
from  abroad  by  missionary  hands.     In  China  many 
missionaries    have    become    especially    interested    in 
problems  of  agriculture,  and  have  given  to  the  hard- 
working and  economical  Chinese  farmer  methods  of 
intensive  cultivation  that  have  made  work  much  more 
productive  and  life  by  that  much  less  hard.     In  semi- 
arid  lands  he  has  taught  the  arts  of  irrigation,  and  in 
China  improved  the  wells  and  canals  that  had  been 
used  from  time  immemorial  for  the  watering  of  the 
fields.     In  Assam  tea  culture  was  begun,  and  orange 
growing  was  taken  to  the  South  Seas.     A  partial  list 
of  the  edibles  introduced  in  various  lands  will  give 
some  idea  of  the  scope  of  his  industrial  activities  in 
the  task  of  giving  peoples  a  better  chance  in  life.     He 
has   transplanted   oranges,   limes,   mangoes,   cocoanut 
palms,  cocoa  beans,  pine-apples,  coffee,  cotton,  toma- 
toes,   wheat,    barley,    corn,    and    almost   every   other 
edible  adaptable  to  the  land  in  which  he  happened 
to  find  the  necessity;  he  has  transported  cattle,  builded 
boats,  laid  out  roadways,  constructed  houses,  moulded 
brick,  dug  canals,  cultivated  fields,  established  mer- 
cantile houses,  and  contributed  every  art  of  material 
progress  as  an  aid  to  his  beneficent  work  of  creating 

191 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

a  civilization.  The  Zulu  mud  hut  became  a  neat, 
square  cottage,  with  tile  roof;  the  Syrian  hovel  became 
a  two-storied  house  with  chimneys  where  before  the 
smoke  had  escaped  through  a  hole  in  the  thatch,  and 
with  tiled  floor,  where  before  there  was  only  a  hole  in 
the  mud  wall;  the  South  Sea  common  shed,  where  from 
forty  to  sixty  persons  of  all  ages  and  both  sexes  lived  in 
common,  was  changed  into  separate  family  houses; 
Hindu  villages  have  been  so  changed  that  travelers  can 
always  tell  they  have  felt  the  impress  of  Christianity. 
Peoples  who  roved  from  place  to  place,  following  the  luck 
of  the  chase,  have  been  induced  to  settle  into  stable 
communities  and  till  the  ground  for  a  living,  substitu- 
ting substantial  dwelling-places  for  the  bed  of  sand 
and  the  shelter  of  bower  or  cave;  the  sheet  iron  stove 
has  been  substituted  for  the  charcoal  brazier  or  the 
brick  oven  in  which  weeds  and  grass  were  burned 
and  warmth  given  the  limbs  of  little  children  that  had 
suffered  severely  with  the  only  slightly  tempered 
cold  of  closed  and  stifled  rooms. 

The  missionary  has  developed  native  products 
and  created  new  types  of  native  implements  and  put 
peoples  on  their  own  resources.  In  the  South  Seas 
he  discovered  the  uses  of  arrow-root  and  taught  the 
native  how  to  make  it  one  of  the  staples  of  life.  He 
dug  wells  and  showed  the  wondering  savages  how  to 
quench  their  thirst  when  there  was  no  rain,  and  moved 
plantations  back  from  the  miasmatic  lowlands  of  stream 
beds  to  the  healthier  uplands.  He  has  induced  com- 
munities to  remove  their  villages  from  sandy  and  arid 
lands  to  richer  soil  by  adapting  novel  products  to 
their  native  arts  of  cultivation.     It  is  claimed  he  in- 

192 


MISSIONARY  AND  AFFAIRS  OF  THE  WORLD 

vented  the  jinrikisha,  and  thus  gave  Japan  its  chief 
vehicle.  The  Khaki  dye  is  one  of  his  African  dis- 
coveries, and  many  medical  remedies  can  be  traced 
to  his  study  of  botany.  He  produced  a  movable 
type  for  Japanese  character  and  invented  typewriters 
for  the  Burmese  and  Chinese,  the  latter  with  four 
thousand  characters  on  its  type  wheel.  John  Williams 
taught  the  South  Sea  Islanders  how  to  build  ships, 
and  they  became  quite  adept,  substituting  vessels 
of  several  hundred  tons  burden  for  their  old  "dug- 
outs." In  East  Africa  Mackay  built  some  two  or 
three  hundred  miles  of  roadway  and  thus  began  the 
innovation  that  has  replaced  miles  of  winding  native 
paths  with  excellent  roadbeds.  The  Lake  Nyassa 
mission  builded  the  famous  Stevenson  road  joining 
Lakes  Nyassa  and  Tanganika.  Everywhere  his  effort 
has  been  so  to  create  the  arts  of  industry,  the  desire  for 
a  better  manner  of  living,  and  so  to  develop  native 
resourcefulness  that  every  community  would  become 
self-sufficient,  able  to  provide  for  its  own  higher  wants, 
or  so  to  contribute  to  those  of  other  places  that  trade 
would  bring  all  the  means  for  a  better  manner  of  life, 
and  thus  allow  the  stable  attainment  of  those  higher 
intellectual  and  spiritual  states  which  are  conceived 
to  be  the  goal  of  life. 

As  the  material  adjuncts  of  better  living  depend 
upon  the  creation  of  new  desires,  so  their  use  and  main- 
tenance depend  upon  the  building  up  of  a  sense  of 
honesty,  of  community  service,  the  practice  of  the 
golden  rule  in  business  and  industrial  relationships, 
and  the  necessity  of  economy  and  self-dependence. 
The  common  people  of  India,  like  our  negro  masses 
13  193 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

in  the  South,  live  on  credit.  They  are  forever  in 
debt,  and  the  usurer  is  pitiless;  the  lowest  rate  of  in- 
terest is  one  per  cent  per  month,  the  average  annual 
rate  is  from  20%  to  30%,  and  often  runs  as  high  as 
70%.  In  China  and  Moslem  lands  the  rate  will 
run  from  one  to  three  per  cent  per  month,  and  in 
Siam  it  runs  up  to  100%.  There  is  literally  no  limit 
upon  the  power  or  avariciousness  of  the  native  money 
lender,  and  he  enforces  his  legal  rights  with  Shylock 
severity.  The  debtor's  prison  is  a  crushing  institution, 
and  slavery  is  the  nemesis  of  the  hopeless  debtor. 
The  missionary  cultivates  a  thrift  that  escapes  the 
usurer,  and,  where  necessary,  founds  savings  insti- 
tutions, co-operates  with  the  government  in  inducing 
the  people  to  use  Agricultural  Banks,  or  adopts  the 
English  Provident  Societies  as  means  for  defeating 
the  all-consuming  dragon  of  interest.  Retail  trade 
is  a  process  of  haggling  over  prices  and  rests  upon 
the  theory  that  one  must  get,  not  what  an  article  is 
worth,  but  what  another  may  be  induced  to  pay  for  it. 
The  missioner  lends  all  influence  to  more  open  and 
scientific  methods  of  commerce,  and  to  the  cultivation 
of  that  trust  of  one  another  that  makes  trade  one  of 
the  constructive  arts  of  a  civilized  life,  instead  of  a 
barbarous  method  of  taking  advantage  of  necessity. 
In  numerous  instances  the  native  Christian  has  built 
up  a  renumerative  business  by  practicing  the  simple 
arts  of  open  dealing,  making  every  article  just  what 
he  represented  it  to  be,  with  the  price  plainly  marked 
upon  it.  By  elevating  the  moral  standards  he  culti- 
vates a  character  that  is  able  to  appreciate  the  benefits 
of  a  more  progressive  material  civilization,  and  by 

194 


C^ySI-  -    ▼#UETF' f  *«IHSI 


MISSIONARY  AND  AFFAIRS  OF  THE  WORLD 

introducing  the  arts  of  a  more  progressive  material 
civilization  he  fortifies  the  moral  and  social  life  he 
has  planted  with  an  environment  that  sustains  and 
upbuilds  it. 

4.    The  Pioneer  of  Civilization. 

The  missionary  is  the  pioneer  of  civilization.  He 
discovers  new  realms,  explores  unknown  regions, 
opens  trade  routes,  establishes  friendly  relations  with 
barbarous  and  hermit  peoples,  and  cultivates  a  uni- 
versal desire  for  the  arts  and  goods  of  civilization. 
The  Chinese  Ambassador  to  the  United  States  calls 
him  "the  frontiersman  of  trade  and  commerce."  The 
emissaries  of  world  trade  have  gone  to  the  Orient 
prejudiced  against  him,  and  returned  to  proclaim  him 
"the  advance  agent  of  business,"  and  the  greatest 
benefactor  of  the  Orient.  A  certain  commercial  man 
went  to  China  with  all  the  prejudice  a  materialistic 
mind  and  an  ignorance  of  missions  could  create;  in 
Shanghai  he  drank  a  toast  to  commerce  and  proclaimed 
aversion  to  the  missionary ;  six  months  later  he  returned 
to  the  same  club  to  praise  the  emissary  of  Christian- 
ity as  the  choicest  product  of  modern  civilization, 
the  harbinger  of  all  progress,  and  the  greatest  asset 
that  commerce  possessed  in  the  Orient.  He  is  not  a 
"drummer,"  nor  does  he  go  with  any  avowed  attempt 
to  open  trade  routes,  or  act  as  an  advance  agent  for 
Western  commerce.  But  so  surely  as  he  elevates  a 
people  he  creates  within  them  the  desire  for  things 
that  civilized  industry  alone  can  produce,  and  by 
piercing  new  lands  and  exploring  unseen  regions  he 
opens  avenues  for  the  trader.     He  has  little  interest 

195 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

in  trade  as  such;  in  fact  he  often  finds  the  frontier 
trader  his  chief  enemy,  for  he  deals  in  rum,  firearms, 
opiates,  and  much  useless  material,  and  generally 
takes  sinful  advantage  of  the  guilelessness  of  the 
primitive  man.  True  exchange  of  commodities  is 
one  of  the  promoters  of  civilization,  and  between  it 
and  the  missionary  cause  there  is  a  large  community 
of  interest,  but  the  brutal  trade  in  men,  known  as  the 
"Kanaka  traffic"  in  the  South  Pacific  Seas,  the  "red 
rubber"  commerce  of  the  Congo  with  its  unspeakable 
oppression  and  brutality,  the  opium  trade  in  China  with 
its  resultant  "Opium  War,"  the  merchandise  of  cocoa 
and  its  accompanying  slavery  in  Portuguese  West 
Africa,  and  the  universal  decimation  from  rum  wherever 
it  has  been  taken,  constitute  a  series  of  evils  for  which 
civilized  powers  can  make  no  apology.  The  mission- 
ary has  heroically  protested  against  all  these  evils. 
John  G.  Paton  labored  arduously  to  obtain  the  in- 
ternational agreement  protecting  primitive  peoples 
against  the  expert  of  rum  and  firearms  from  civilized 
lands.  The  missionary  body  in  China  have  always 
protested  vigorously  against  the  enforced  opium  trade. 
Two  missionaries,  Drs.  Morrison  and  Shepherd,  at 
risk  to  their  work  and  their  lives,  and  by  submitting 
to  arrest  and  harassment,  were  influential  in  bringing 
about  a  change  in  the  governmental  supervision  of  the 
Congo  regions  that  promises  to  abolish  the  oppressive 
system  of  taxation  and  the  cruelties  of  "red  rubber." 
The  missionary  protest  against  the  "Kanaka  traffic" 
in  the  South  Seas  brought  stringent  laws  against  it, 
and  finally  abolished  the  whole  system  of  indenture 
upon  which  it  hung.     Wherever  white  men  have  traded 

196 


MISSIONARY  AND  AFFAIRS  OF  THE  WORLD 

in  the  flesh  of  the  blacks,  the  Protestant  missionary 
has  been  at  enmity  with  him.  The  work  of  Livingstone 
in  abolishing  the  slave  trade  in  Africa  needs  no  re- 
hearsing here.  He  declared  he  went  to  open  roads  for 
commerce  and  missions,  and  to  substitute  trade  in 
commodities  for  the  universal  African  trade  in  men. 
The  result  was  that  African  Companies  were  formed. 
British  naval  vessels  patrolled  the  African  coasts  in 
quest  of  Arab  slave  dhows,  and  new  forms  of  currency 
were  introduced  in  place  of  the  old  standard  of  ex- 
change, which  was  expressed  in  the  value  of  a  slave. 
Civilization  brings  new  wants,  and  new  wants  mean 
exports.  Dr.  Dennis  says  a  careful  estimate  made  by 
Englishmen,  the  greatest  of  all  world  traders,  was 
that  every  pound  spent  on  missions  brought  back 
ten  pounds  in  commerce,  and  quotes  another  authority 
as  saying  that  "when  a  missionary  has  been  on  the 
field  twenty  years  he  is  worth  $50,000  per  year  to  Brit- 
ish commerce."  A  study  of  African  communities 
showed  that  after  they  were  Christianized  they  used 
ten  times  as  much  merchandise  as  before.  To  teach 
a  million  people  to  wear  clothes  means  an  immense 
trade  in  cotton,  and  to  persuade  them  to  keep  their 
clothes  and  faces  clean  brings  demands  for  soap. 
When  missionaries  first  went  to  Syria  there  was  not 
a  window  glass  in  the  country.  They  introduced  both 
window  glass  and  stoves,  and  nearly  every  house  in 
Asia  Minor  is  now  supplied.  The  trade  in  plows  in 
Africa  and  India  has  already  been  noted.  The  sta- 
tistics Dr.  Dennis  gives  of  trade  in  the  South  Seas  totals 
millions  annually,  and  is  directly  traceable  to  mission- 
ary labors.     That  of  the  Lake  regions  of  Africa  is  no 

197 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

less  due  to  missionary  pioneering  and  the  transforma- 
tions wrought  in  the  desires  of  a  barbarous  population. 
Wu  Ting  Fang  wittily  remarked  that  if  we  could  in- 
duce Chinamen  to  lengthen  their  shirt-tails  one  inch 
it  would  make  the  cotton-growers  of  the  South  rich. 
The  missionaries  to  China  have  opened  museums, 
illustrating  the  material  and  other  achievements  of 
civilization,  and  as  many  as  100,000  have  passed 
through  their  doors  in  one  year's  time.  They  have 
established  "model  stores"  to  introduce  those  imple- 
ments of  progress  that  would  be  of  profit  to  their 
communities  and  conducted  them,  without  an  eye 
to  profit,  until  normal  channels  of  trade  could  be 
opened.  Many  mission  schools  have  business  de- 
partments for  the  training  of  the  youth  in  the  ways 
of  upright  commerce,  and  every  school  gives  instruc- 
tion in  the  things  of  universal  interest,  the  life  and 
work  of  the  world,  and  the  advantage  of  open  com- 
munication with  all  mankind. 

The  missionary  has  not  laid  down  railroads,  but 
his  work  has  expedited  their  construction.  The  first 
successful  train  traffic  in  North  China  was  conducted 
along  a  route  where  there  had  been  a  line  of  mission 
stations  for  twenty  years;  other  roads  were  angrily 
torn  up  by  the  coolies  and  their  friends,  who  saw  a 
single  locomotive  doing  the  work  of  hundreds  of  men. 
The  missions  had  so  made  for  progress  that  the  people 
were  ready  for  the  innovations  it  brought.  To-day 
there  are  6,000  miles  of  railroad  in  China  and  as  much 
more  projected;  the  Chinese  will  probably  be  the 
greatest  railroad  builders  of  the  century.  Africa 
will  ere  long  be  traversed  both  from  east  to  west  and 

198 


MISSIONARY  AND  AFFAIRS  OF  THE  WORLD 

from  north  to  south  by  direct  lines  of  rail  and  steam- 
boat traffic.  It  was  the  missionary,  Krapf,  who 
first  designed  an  eastern  to  western  route  by  means 
of  a  transcontinental  line  of  mission  stations,  and 
Bishop  Gray  dreamed  long  before  Cecil  Rhodes  of  a 
Cape  to  Cairo  route  by  means  of  a  continuous  line 
of  mission  stations  and  traversible  roadways  connecting 
them.  It  was  Mackay  who  first  suggested  the  Uganda 
railroad.  Wherever  the  missionary  goes  the  trading- 
ship,  the  railroad,  and  the  telegraph  follow  in  course 
of  time.  He  is  not  the  sole  creator  of  trade  routes, 
and  in  some  instances  the  trader  has  preceded  him, 
but  the  rule  has  been  that  he  pioneered  the  way,  and 
it  has  ever  been  that  he  first  found  that  way  into  the 
hearts  of  the  people  which  Stanley  called  the  greatest 
achievement. 

Where  there  has  been  no  open  means  of  trade,  or 
no  honest  means  at  hand,  the  missionary  has  founded 
trading  companies  as  adjuncts  to  his  work  of  creating 
a  civilization.  He  has  never  conducted  the  commerce 
himself  for  the  advantages  of  profit ;  if  it  was  necessary 
to  establish  a  commerce  he  did  it  as  a  means  to  his  one 
task  of  converting  men  to  Christianity  and  building 
a  civilized  community  in  which  they  could  retain  their 
new-found  life,  and  he  relinquished  it  upon  the  first 
opportunity  that  offered.  The  Uganda  Company, 
the  Scottish  Missions  Industries  Company  of  the 
Blantyre  Mission,  the  Livingstonia  Trading  Company 
of  the  Livingstonia  Mission,  the  Papuan  Industries 
of  New  Guinea,  and  the  Basle  Mission  Trading  Com- 
pany are  instances  of  commercial  auxiliaries  formed 
by   missionary   men,   independent   of   missionary   so- 

199 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

cieties,  and  for  the  specific  purposes  of  working  in 
harmony  with  missionary  activities.  Their  purpose 
is  to  give  the  natives  a  social  environment  in  which 
they  can  develop  Christian  character,  to  enable  them 
to  become  independent,  to  make  the  mission  self- 
supporting,  and  to  protect  them  against  unscrupulous 
traders.  These  companies  superintend  plantations, 
develop  the  cultivation  of  sugar,  cotton,  coffee,  and 
rubber,  make  bricks,  build  houses,  transport  goods, 
build  lake  vessels,  construct  roads,  and  give  all  possible 
financial  and  instructional  encouragement  to  natives 
in  the  building  up  of  independent  farms  and  busi- 
nesses of  their  own.  They  are  typical  examples  of 
philanthropy  and  five  per  cent,  with  great  emphasis 
upon  the  philanthropic  part  of  enterprise.  They 
furnish  models  in  business  enterprise  and  examples 
in  business  integrity.  Josiah  Strong  advocates  a  plan 
to  send  superior  Christian  young  men  to  the  mission 
fields  as  merchants,  commercial  men,  investors,  and 
superintendents  of  all  manner  of  enterprises  conducted 
there  by  the  whites.  He  would  make  them  an  anti- 
dote to  those  worshipers  of  mammon  and  devotees 
of  materialism  that  go  with  a  spirit  of  adventure  to 
the  conduct  of  such  enterprises,  and  also  a  positive 
force  for  the  introduction  of  Christian  ethics  into 
those  commercial  relations  that  so  often  afford  dif- 
ficulties to  the  non-Christian  mind  in  its  wrestle  with 
the  appeal  of  the  missionary. 

The  missionary  is  a  maker  of  men  and  civilization. 
Among  the  necessities  of  his  work  are  the  arts  of  ma- 
terial progress.  He  needs  them  to  supply  the  newly 
awakened  wants,  and  to  furnish  an  environment  in 

200 


MISSIONARY  AND  AFFAIRS  OF  THE  WORLD 

which  the  awakened  lives  of  men  can  find  safety.  Sir 
Hiram  Maxim,  an  advocate  of  materialism,  wrote 
a  virulent  attack  on  the  missionary;  he  used  unbecom- 
ing language  even  in  the  violence  of  his  prejudices 
against  both  the  man  and  his  method.  The  Chinese 
Courts  have  interdicted  its  circulation  in  China,  one 
of  the  judges  on  the  Supreme  Bench  at  Shanghai  say- 
ing, "I  never  read  such  balderdash."  There  is  no 
conflict  between  honest  commerce  and  the  missionary, 
nor  between  the  arts  of  material  progress  and  his 
work  of  awakening  the  souls  of  men.  Commerce  and 
politics  owe  him  a  vast  debt  for  his  work  of  explora- 
tion, of  creating  new  wants,  of  opening  closed  and 
savage  lands  to  civilization,  and  for  his  transforming 
and  peace-making  evangel. 

5.    The  Missionary  and  Universal  Peace. 

The  dominating  world  movement  of  our  time  is 
that  toward  universal  peace.  There  has  not  been  a 
great  war  between  Western  nations  in  the  last  genera- 
tion. To-day  there  are  no  less  than  sixty  arbitration 
treaties  in  force,  and  such  international  agreements 
bid  fair  to  grow  rapidly,  both  in  number  and  in  the 
scope  of  their  provisions.  The  nations  are  drawn 
together  with  numerous  common  agreements;  the 
Navigator's  Code  is  used  by  forty  of  them  alike,  and 
the  International  Postal  and  Telegraphic  Union  in- 
cludes fifty-five.  International  conferences  include 
every  conceivable  question  that  is  of  common  concern, 
from  a  general  conference  on  morals  up  to  the  Inter- 
parliamentary Union  and  The  Hague  Tribunal.  The 
Central  American  Peace  Union  is  an  actualized  ex- 

201 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

ample  of  enforced  conciliation  through  judicial  pro- 
cedure. The  Hague  Prize  Court  bids  fair  to  become 
the  nucleus  of  a  universal  court  of  arbitration.  The 
American  Bureau  of  Republics,  including  twenty- 
one  nations,  is  so  educating  the  Americans  on  the 
commonality  of  their  enterprises  that  war  will  be- 
come impossible  as  public  opinion  receives  educa- 
tion. The  Red  Cross  is  an  unofficial,  but  none  the 
less  real,  international  bond.  International  law  is 
becoming  a  recognized  code  that  will  demand  a 
court,  and  rules  of  war  have  the  force  of  inter- 
national legislation.  The  neutralization  of  terri- 
tory is  one  of  the  most  signal  signs  of  a  "Truce  of 
God"  in  our  times.  The  Baltic  and  North  Seas  are 
now  neutralized  in  the  interest  of  common  safety, 
and  various  ones  of  the  smaller  nations  are  guaranteed 
against  attack  by  the  power  of  stronger  governments; 
such  is  the  case  with  Switzerland,  Belgium,  and  Nor- 
way. 

The  growth  of  common  knowledge,  the  widening 
sympathy  that  a  more  universal  education  brings, 
the  common  interests  of  an  international  commerce 
that  is  making  the  whole  world  one  vast  trading  mart, 
the  rising  intelligence  of  labor  and  its  awakening  to 
the  fact  that  it  bears  all  the  burdens- in  the  end,  the 
tendency  of  all  legislation  to  take  on  a  social  cast,  and 
the  evolving  spirit  of  humanitarianism,  all  make 
mightily  against  warfare.  The  ideals  of  one  age  work 
out  into  action  in  the  next.  Kings  and  diplomats 
can  no  longer  make  war.  "The  people  now,  not 
governments,   make  friendships  or  discord,   peace  or 

202 


MISSIONARY  AND  AFFAIRS  OF  THE  WORLD 

war,  between  nations,"  said  Secretary  Root.  It  is 
gratifying  to  have  Secretary  Yen,  of  the  Chinese 
delegation,  declare  that  "There  is  a  public  opinion 
in  China  now  that  makes  itself  heard,"  for  it  has  been 
the  fear  of  the  West  that  the  Yellow  man  would  arise 
to  avenge  the  wrongs  done  him.  If  it  is  left  to  public 
opinion  there  will  be  no  "Yellow  Peril,"  for  the  masses 
of  China  are  peaceful  by  nature  and  through  long 
habit.  "They  believe,  philosophically,  in  the  right 
so  thoroughly,"  said  Sir  Robert  Hart,  "that  they 
scorn  to  think  it  requires  to  be  enforced  or  supported 
by  might." 

When  we  turn  to  the  other  side  of  the  question  and 
see  the  vast  preparations  constantly  being  made  for 
war,  we  wonder  if  there  is  any  real  promise  of  its  ces- 
sation. The  world  is  staggering  to-day  under  a  vast 
war  debt  of  $35,000,000,000,  and  goes  on  spending 
no  less  than  $2,000,000,000  annually  on  preparations 
for  battles  they  hope  will  never  come.  There  is  yet 
a  "military  party"  dominant  in  most  of  the  nations. 
Russia  runs  up  an  annual  deficit  of  $75,000,000,  but 
makes  plans  for  a  billion  dollar  navy.  France,  Ger- 
many, Italy,  and  even  England,  are  in  debt  until  the 
interest  alone  is  a  great  burden  upon  public  revenues, 
and  the  wages  of  the  laborer  are  so  low  as  to  forbid 
him  the  promise  of  a  competence  in  old  age.  Even 
the  United  States  spends  hundreds  of  millions  yearly 
on  her  army  and  navy,  though  she  possesses  that  "mag- 
nificent isolation"  which  ought  to  take  her  out  of  the 
suspicions  of  old-world  complications.  Her  popula- 
tion has  increased  85%  in  the  last  thirty  years,  her 
*        203 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

wealth  185%,  and  her  expenditures  400%,  two-thirds 
of  it  for  a  military  budget.  Might  we  not  cry  with 
Katrina  Trask: 

"Peace  is  not  peace  that  sings  its  battle  songs, 
And  sets  its  cannons  on  a  hundred  hills; 

Peace  is  the  great  affirmative  of  God; 
It  knows  no  armies,  arms  or  armaments; 
For  armies,  arms,  and  armaments  deal  death, 
And  peace  holds  conquest  in  the  strength  of  life; 
Its  crown  immortal  is  unconquerable. 

Cease  to  build  battle-ships  and  death's  grim  en- 
ginery; 

Cease  to  pay  tribute  to  the  god  of  war; 

And  cease — O  Pharisees — to  pray  'Thy  Kingdom 
come,' 

While  you  are  voting  means  to  make  a  hell, 

In  some  vain  boasted  cause  of  righteousness." 

Commerce  and  politics  have  been  the  fruitful 
sources  of  most  modern  wars.  The  accusation  that 
missions  have  been  the  cause  of  conflict  is  easily  re- 
futed. In  China  the  Boxer  rebellion  afforded  oppor- 
tunity for  much  materialistic  and  misanthropic  mis- 
judgment  of  missions.  That  rebellion  involved  mis- 
sions only  because  they  were  foreign,  not  because  they 
were  religious,  or  because  of  any  direct  opposition 
to  the  missionary  as  an  emissary  of  Christianity,  or 
an  opponent  of  native  faiths.  Missions  is  the  one 
world  movement  of  our  time  that  stands  unalterably 

204 


MISSIONARY  AND  AFFAIRS  OF  THE  WORLD 

opposed  to  warfare.  One  nation  might  listen  to  the 
demands  of  commerce  and  compel  another  to  open 
its  ports  to  trade;  political  consideration  might  compel 
the  opening  of  a  land  like  Tibet;  but  missions  never 
asked  for  force  to  open  Tibet  or  any  other  closed  land, 
though  they  might  wait,  like  the  lonely  Moravian 
at  his  outpost  in  the  Himalayas,  thirty  years  for  the 
day  to  come  when  he  could  enter  in  with  his  message 
of  human  good,  or  like  Peter  Rijnhart,  who  was  mar- 
tyred in  attempting  to  win  Tibet's  friendship,  give 
his  own  life  in  an  effort  to  show  a  hermit  folk  that  the 
missionary  would  bring  them  good  if  only  they  would 
let  him  come  in. 

The  missioner  has  brought  peace  to  vast  popula- 
tions that  knew  no  other  manner  of  contact  than  that 
of  strife  and  bloodshed.  In  the  South  Seas  whole 
tribes  were  won  from  the  decimating  terrors  of  inter- 
tribal strife  to  a  peace  that  has  not  been  broken  in 
two  generations.  The  Fijians  number  more  than 
100,000  souls,  and  a  more  peaceful  land  is  unknown; 
John  Hunt  found  them  living  by  war  and  cannibalism. 
The  Battaks  of  Sumatra  number  50,000,  and  are 
to-day  a  nation  of  cruel,  superstitious,  warlike  folk, 
won  to  the  gentle  arts  of  peace.  The  Sarawaks  were 
among  the  most  dangerous  and  thieving  of  aboriginal 
peoples;  an  English  traveler  says  that  to-day  a  traveler 
may  drop  his  portmanteau  anywhere  on  the  pathway, 
ramble  in  perfect  peace  where  a  few  years  ago  his  head 
would  have  been  taken,  and  return  to  find  his  goods 
untouched.  The  Zulus  were  perhaps  the  ablest  and 
most  competent  militarists  ever  discovered  among 
primitive  peoples.    They   had  a  regular  military,  or- 

205 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

ganization  with  companies  and  corps,  and  a  military 
law.  Their  fighting  qualities  are  the  equal  of  any 
living  race,  but  they  were  won  to  arts  of  peace  by  the 
missionaries  before  the  white  trader  made  inroads 
upon  them.  In  Uganda,  Mackay  found  Mtesa  ruling 
a  well  organized  primitive  state.  His  army,  with  its 
regularly  constituted  series  of  chieftains,  was  anything 
but  a  savage  horde  of  undisciplined  raiders,  and  was 
used  to  prey  upon  weaker  neighboring  tribes  in  a  vast 
slave  trade  that  counted  its  victims  by  the  thousands. 
To-day  Winston  Churchill  says  he  never  traveled 
in  a  more  law-abiding,  peaceful  land,  and  lays  his 
tribute  of  praise  upon  the  head  of  the  missionary. 

Wherever  the  missionary  has  gone  he  has  been  a 
force  for  conciliation  between  the  intruding  white 
and  the  native  peoples.  He  has  stood  between  the 
arrogance  of  the  colonial  administrator  or  the  pioneer 
trader  and  the  rights  of  the  native  races,  and  his  in- 
timate understanding  of  the  native  mind  and  custom 
has  been  a  source  of  information  to  governors  who 
desired  to  do  the  best  by  their  primitive  wards.  Sir 
Mackworth  Mackenzie,  Lieutenant  Governor  of  the 
Punjab,  said  the  lives  and  teachings  of  the  mission- 
aries are  the  most  potent  influence  working  there. 
Our  first  ministers  to  China  found  the  missionaries 
indispensable  to  their  work  and  testified  that  without 
them,  with  their  use  of  the  native  tongue  and  their 
sympathetic  knowledge  of  the  native  mind,  their 
work  would  have  been  impossible.  Without  a  single 
exception  these  ambassadors  of  the  early  days  became 
warm  defenders  of  missions,  and  especially  of  the  mis- 
sionary,  as   a  force  making   for   peace   between   the 

206 


• 


MISSIONARY  AND  AFFAIRS  OF  THE  WORLD 

nations.  It  was  S.  Wells  Williams  who  wrote  the  "  Tol- 
eration Clause  "  in  our  treaty  with  China,which  was  later 
put  into  that  of  England  also.  He  also  brought  about 
the  "Most  Favored  Nation  Clause"  of  our  treaty  with 
Japan.  Dr.  Dennis  cites  numerous  specific  instances 
of  such  direct  influence  of  the  missionary  in  inter- 
national relations.  Missionaries  have  accepted  con- 
sulates and  sat  on  government  commissions  because 
of  the  opportunities  offered  to  prevent  friction  and  culti- 
vate comity.  Dr.  Allen  became  our  first  minister  to 
Korea  and  was  a  dominant  influence  in  the  peaceable 
opening  of  that  closed  land  to  civilization  and  contact 
with  the  world.  Verbeck  sent  a  Japanese  commission 
around  the  world  and  opened  their  eyes  to  its  marvels, 
resulting  in  a  quick  opening  of  the  land  to  all  the  in- 
fluences of  civilization,  and  a  proclamation  of  absolute 
toleration.  The  missionary  has  ever  stood  for  the 
essential  oneness  of  races  and  nations;  admitting  the 
vast  difference  in  attainments,  he  believes  in  the  po- 
tentialities of  even  the  least  among  men,  if  only  they 
be  discriminatingly  educated  and  trained  through  the 
long  period  it  must  take  to  raise  up  a  civilization. 
"All  conclusions  based  upon  the  assumption  that  the 
status  of  a  race  at  any  particular  moment  is  to  be 
wholly  or  largely  explained  by  the  physical  character- 
istics of  that  race,  turns  out  to  be  an  illusion,"  says  Lord 
Weardale,  President  of  the  Universal  Races  Congress. 
Kipling  may  sing  that  "East  is  East  and  West 
is  West,  and  never  the  twain  shall  meet,"  but  the  mis- 
sionary, pre-eminently  the  world's  cosmopolite,  out 
of  his  rich  experience  and  sympathetic  understanding 
of  peoples,  his  scientific  study  of  the  psychology  of 

207 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

racial  minds,  his  explorations  into  the  sociology  of  all 
mankind,  and  his  experiments  in  the  creation  of  civil- 
ization, believes  that  there  is  a  broad  and  deep  foun- 
dation of  universal  human  experience  that  warrants 
him  in  contending  for  a  world  order  of  peace  and  inter- 
racial communion  that  will  adjust  all  difficulties, 
assure  every  people  of  their  own  independent  oppor- 
tunity to  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness, 
and  make  all  mankind  one  of  kin.  Peace  is  bound  up 
in  an  attitude  of  mind  more  than  in  any  external  ar- 
rangements that  can  be  made.  The  missionary  culti- 
vates that  attitude  of  mind  in  his  instructions  in  fra- 
ternity, his  breaking  down  of  provincialism  and  sec- 
tionalism, his  demand  for  equality  of  human  right,  his 
inculcation  of  a  universal  religion  of  humanity,  and 
his  presentation  of  one  Father  God  to  all  men.  Prin- 
cipal Fairbairn  said  that  to  have  realized  Plato's  Re- 
public would  have  ruined  humanity.  To  realize 
Christ's  Kingdom  of  God  alone  will  save  all  humanity 
to  peace  and  fellowship,  and  lift  up  that  very  class 
whom  Plato  deemed  it  impossible  to  elevate.  Chan- 
cellor Kent  said,  "A  general  diffusion  of  the  Bible  is 
the  most  effectual  way  to  civilize  and  humanize  man- 
kind." Its  circulation  is  an  evangel  of  ideals;  a  knowl- 
edge of  it  founds  in  the  minds  of  men  those  ideas  that 
break  down  suspicion  and  substitute  confidence,  for- 
bids one  preying  upon  another  and  demands  service 
one  of  another,  establishes  a  universal  spirit  of  de- 
mocracy, and  inspires  humanity  with  brotherly  love. 


208 


CHAPTER  VI 

The  Social  Way  of  Unity 

1.    The  Field  and  the  Kingdom. 

It  is  estimated  that  there  are  now  1,700,000,000 
souls  in  the  world.  Of  this  number  only  about  550,- 
000,000  are  even  nominally  Christian.  Thus  two- 
thirds  of  humanity  are  yet  to  be  evangelized.  If  we 
count  those  vast  Catholic  and  Greek  populations 
that  are  yet  superstitious  and  idolatrous  adherents 
to  a  form  of  Christianity,  such  as  those  of  South  Amer- 
ica and  the  masses  of  Russia,  and  add  to  them  the 
worshipers  in  the  ancient  and  degenerate  churches, 
such  as  those  of  the  Copts,  the  Armenians,  and  the 
Nestorians,  the  number  will  be  increased  by  150,- 
000,000  more.  If  we  estimate  the  number  of  Prot- 
estants at  a  round  200,000,000,  there  yet  remains  a 
like  number  of  Roman  and  Greek  Catholics,  among 
whom  the  millions  dwelling  in  exclusively  Catholic 
lands  have  great  need  of  a  higher  social  plane  of  life, 
to  say  nothing  of  the  needs  of  a  correct  religious  con- 
ception of  the  exclusive  place  of  Christ  in  our  faith, 
of  freedom  of  conscience,  and  a  conception  of  the 
practical  oneness  of  religion  and  righteousness. 

If  for  the  sake  of  our  immediate  problem  we  con- 
fine ourselves  to  those  peoples  who  are  non-Christian, 
we  are  almost  appalled  at  the  vastness  of  the  under- 

14  209 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

taking.  Here  are  200,000,000  Mohammedans  who 
have  scarcely  been  touched.  Their  vigor  as  a  mis- 
sionary force  has  been  overestimated,  but  they  are 
practically  the  only  missionary  religion  outside  Chris- 
tianity, and  that  they  are  pushing  an  active  propa- 
ganda in  the  Soudan  and  south  into  Equatorial  Africa. 
The  Senussi  of  the  Soudan  have  a  definite  organization 
for  propaganda,  and  are  imbued  with  all  the  fanatical 
intolerance  of  the  old-time  Moslem.  In  India  Islam 
makes  progress  over  the  native  faiths,  largely  because 
it  destroys  caste  and  appeals  to  the  millions  that  are 
under  its  thralldom  among  the  lower  and  out-castes, 
but  India  is  a  free  country  and  Mohammedans  are 
won  to  Christianity.  Turkey  is  opening  to  the  message 
and  Moslems  are  among  the  inquirers.  Freedom  of 
the  press  and  of  speech  can  not  long  prevail  without 
freedom  of  action  following.  The  process  may  be 
slow,  but  "the  mills  of  God  grind  slowly."  Persia 
is  awakening  and  Mohammedan  children  are  found 
in  her  mission  schools.  In  Africa  the  creeping  frontier 
line  could  be  successfully  turned  back  by  a  strong 
line  of  mission  stations  from  Uganda  to  the  Congo. 
Islam  is  not  insuperable,  though  she  presents  the  great- 
est need  for  strategy  in  the  statesmanship  of  the  modern 
missionary  church. 

India's  300,000,000  present  the  greatest  social 
need  of  any  of  the  older  lands.  She  is  the  oldest  of  the 
great  missionary  fields  and  there  is  within  her  borders 
to-day  a  Christian  community,  counting  those  who 
have  openly  accepted  the  Christ  and  those  whose 
lives  are  more  or  less  ordered  after  the  tenets  of  Chris- 
tianity, though  not  openly  associated  with  any  Chris- 

210 


THE  SOCIAL  WAY  OF  UNITY 

tian  communion,  of  5,000,000  souls.  This  is  a  small 
proportion,  but  when  we  compare  it  with  historic 
parallels  it  is  very  encouraging,  and  if  we  could  measure 
the  leavening  influence  of  the  missionary  force  upon  the 
social  and  national  life  of  the  people,  we  should  be  fairly 
astounded  at  its  success.  Sir  Augustus  Rivers  Thomp- 
son called  the  missionaries  the  "true  saviors  of  the 
empire,"  and  Sir  Andrew  Fraser  told  a  convention 
of  commercial  men  that  out  of  thirty  years'  experience 
as  a  government  administrator  in  India,  he  was  con- 
vinced that  the  missionary  had  done  more  for  her 
uplift  than  all  other  agencies  combined.  But  India's 
multitudes  are  yet  under  the  thralldom  of  super- 
stition and  in  bondage  to  caste.  Famine  devastates 
her  and  a  million  die  in  one  section  while  plenty  is 
enjoyed  in  another,  yet  there  will  be  little  charity. 
Millions  live  in  squalor  and  die  of  plague  and  prevent- 
able diseases  because  they  have  no  physician.  She 
is  a  vast  and  rich  land,  and  science  and  the  spirit  of 
humanity  would  make  her  equal  to  all  her  problems, 
but  she  is  blinded  by  her  superstitions  and  enslaved 
by  her  anti-social  customs. 

China's  350,000,000  are  in  the  dawn  of  the  most 
stupendous  change  history  will  have  to  record.  The 
great  lethargic  giant  is  yawning  after  two  millenniums 
of  sleep,  and  what  he  will  do  when  fully  conscious  of 
his  powers  will  depend  upon  the  manner  in  which  we 
deal  with  him.  He  is  naturally  peaceable  and  a  lover 
of  industry.  If  we  touch  China  with  that  "enchanter's 
wand"  which  Darwin  found  in  missionary  benevolence, 
it  may  be  won  to  the  Kingdom  of  God  through  those 
peaceable    works    whose    fruit    is    righteousness.     Sir 

211 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

Robert  Hart  warned  the  encroaching  nations  that  they 
"thought  China  moved  too  slowly."  "Some  day," 
said  he,  "you  will  think  she  moves  too  fast."  There 
the  masses  labor  for  from  six  to  ten  cents  per  day  and 
devote  hundreds  of  millions  to  votive  offerings  at  the 
altars  of  their  false  gods.  Corruption  has  reigned 
so  long  in  all  governmental  circles  that  their  efforts 
at  material  progress  will  entail  vast  burdens  upon  the 
toiling  masses  through  the  historic  methods  of 
"squeeze."  They  have  not  that  sense  of  truthful- 
ness without  which  a  vast  commercial  life  can  never 
be  builded.  Indirection  characterizes  their  inter- 
course, and  lack  of  accuracy  makes  the  forward  way 
tortuous.  "  China,"  said  President  Angell,  once  Ameri- 
can High  Commissioner  to  Peking,  "will  never  be  re- 
deemed until  she  bows  the  knee  to  Christ."  It  is  not 
necessary  to  recount  the  story  of  her  suffering  millions, 
even  in  times  of  plenty.  Poverty  is  omnipresent, 
and  epidemic  disease  is  reckoned  up  to  spirit  forces. 
Until  she  receives  that  Christianity  which  one  of  her 
scholars  described  as  so  wonderfully  opening  the  "eye 
of  the  mind,"  she  will  not  successfully  be  made  anew. 
Japan's  crowded  areas  have  scarcely  been  touched 
by  the  missionary  evangel.  Her  millions  are  digging 
sustenance  out  of  her  mountain  heights  and  searching 
for  it  in  the  sea.  These  masses  have  scarcely  been 
touched  by  Christianity.  The  middle  and  upper 
classes  have  heard  the  message,  and  ten  have  been  made 
better  by  it  for  every  one  who  has  openly  identified 
himself  with  it  in  the  churches.  Prince  Ito  was  one 
of  the  party  Verbeck  sent  around  the  world  that  they 
might  see  what  civilization  had  to  offer.     In  the  days 

212 


THE  SOCIAL  WAY  OF  UNITY 

of  the  Revolution  he  thought  Japan  needed  our  Western 
science  and  education  and  all  the  arts  of  our  material 
and  intellectual  progress,  but  said  that  their  religion 
was  good  enough  for  them.  In  his  later  life  he  com- 
mended Christianity  for  its  ethical  code,  and  said  that 
had  it  not  come  to  his  country  its  young  men  would 
have  been  plunged  into  excesses  of  immorality.  Count 
Okuma  counsels  the  youth  of  Japan  to  practice  the 
morals  of  Christianity,  and  says  that  without  it  the 
developing  nation  can  not  hope  to  endure,  for  Christian 
morality  is  the  sure  foundation  of  progress  ;  the 
thousands  that  are  taught  in  his  school  are  instructed 
in  Christian  morals.  Japan  needs  a  morality  that 
will  redeem  her  youth  from  loose  habits  and  elevate 
her  women  to  a  place  beside  her  men.  The  40,000,000 
common  people  have  scarcely  been  touched  by  the 
missionary  evangel,  and  a  revived  Buddhism  offers  a 
new  challenge  among  the  more  educated. 

Africa  is  yet  an  unoccupied  continent.  Vast  areas 
of  her  inner  plateaus  are  unoccupied,  and  tens  of  mil- 
lions have  not  yet  heard  that  there  is  a  Christ  or  a 
Christian  civilization.  Millions  are  yet  held  in  slavery 
in  her  interiors  and  cannibalism  is  still  practiced  by 
many  tribes.  Woman  is  a  chattel,  home  is  unknown, 
war  is  the  vocation  of  millions,  suspicion  paralyzes 
social  life,  and  humanity  lives  on  a  plane  little  above 
that  of  the  beasts  about  it.  In  the  Soudan  are  un- 
explored states  as  vast  as  Texas,  and  lines  of  travel 
from  3,000  to  5,000  miles  in  length  have  no  missionary 
station.  The  Dark  Continent  is  scarce  touched, 
though  where  she  has  been  laid  under  the  missionary 
conquest  she  has  furnished  veritable  Pentecosts,  and 

213 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

the  story  of  the  new  way  of  life  that  has  sprung  up 
over  the  old  unspeakable  degradation  has  been  like 
that  of  Alladin's  lamp. 

Space  will  not  permit  an  account  of  Tibet,  just 
opened  to  the  Gospel  after  thirty  years  of  waiting  at 
the  Moravian  outpost  in  the  Himalayas;  of  the  Steppes 
of  Central  Asia,  with  their  millions  of  nomads  who  live 
as  the  ancients  did  before  the  days  of  Abraham;  of 
Siberia,  with  its  frozen  stretches  of  sparsely  inhabited 
territory,  and  of  the  islands  of  the  sea  where  the  vileness 
of  man  reaches  its  lowest  degree,  but  where  the  story 
of  Fiji  and  the  New  Hebrides  can  be  retold  a  hundred 
times  if  only  the  evangel  be  sent.  Suffice  it  to  say  that 
if  the  marvelous  success  of  missions  in  the  past  fifty 
years  is  a  challenge  to  greater  undertakings,  the  vast- 
ness  of  the  field  yet  untouched  and  the  need  of  ex- 
tension in  the  lands  already  entered  constitute  a  call 
that  is  tragical  in  its  tone,  but  that  is  never  discouraging 
in  the  light  of  missionary  history,  nor  in  the  promises 
of  the  God  of  Nations.  To  do  the  work  calls  for  more 
than  the  vision  and  the  consecration  of  the  churches; 
it  calls  for  efficiency  at  the  task  as  well,  for  no  amount 
of  enthusiasm  will  avail  if  it  be  not  so  directed  as  to 
bring  the  greatest  results.  The  call  for  missionary  effi- 
ciency is  a  call  to  unity.  Where  one  puts  a  thousand 
to  flight,  two  will  chase  their  ten  thousand.  The 
church  dare  not  present  other  than  a  united  front  to 
the  need  and  to  the  opportunity. 


214 


THE  SOCIAL  WAY  OF  UNITY 


2.    The  Things  that  Unite,  and  the  Things  that 
Divide. 

Men  rarely  differ  on  their  knees,  nor  in  the  presence 
of  a  recognized  human  need.  Mercy  is  not  denomina- 
tionalized,  nor  has  charity  ever  been  the  means  of 
separating  Christian  peoples  into  sects.  There  is 
no  record  of  a  division  in  Christendom  being  brought 
about  by  the  doing  of  good,  unless,  mayhap,  it  was 
by  some  who  protested  against  doing  it.  The  great 
unifying  incentive  is  a  recognition  of  the  task  to  be 
undertaken.  The  great  unifying  spirit  is  an  enthusi- 
asm for  humanity.  Jesus  prayed  that  his  disciples 
should  always  be  united,  in  order  that  the  world  might 
believe  he  was  sent  for  its  salvation.  The  force  that 
unites  is  taking  hold  of  the  church  in  its  rising  recog- 
nition of  the  needs  of  the  world  and  the  coming  of  the 
faith  that  convinces  it  of  Christianity's  power  to  save 
all  men,  regardless  of  race,  clime,  color,  station,  or 
previous  condition.  The  spirit  that  unites  is  taking 
hold  of  the  church  in  the  coming  of  that  social  con- 
science which  Prof.  Francis  Peabody  characterizes 
as  the  "greatest  discovery  of  the  age."  It  is  the  social 
call,  the  call  of  humanity  that  unites. 

The  major  divisions  within  the  church  arose  over 
questions  of  conscience.  In  the  larger  number  of 
cases  they  came  because  the  church,  as  constituted, 
forced  the  advocates  of  some  new  doctrine  out  of  their 
fellowship  with  the  intolerance  that  characterized  the 
age.  Many  of  the  smaller  cleavages  have  been  effected 
by  mere  differences  of  opinion,  or  by  some  sectional 
or  minor  difficulty  that  took  root  in  a  time  which  em- 

215 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

phasized  liberty  of  opinion  to  the  detriment  of  efficiency 
in  action.  But  to-day  the  great  contentions  for  con- 
science sake  have  been  won  and  have  become  the  pos- 
session of  all  the  churches.  Sectarianism  stands  to- 
day as  an  arrested  development.  There  are  no  great 
essentials  that  longer  divide  Protestant  Christianity 
into  denominations.  It  is  the  hold  of  tradition,  the 
historic  continuities,  the  prejudices  of  early  training, 
and  questions  of  form  and  polity,  that  keep  up  the 
walls  of  division. 

The  question  of  unity  is  not  only  one  of  more  love 
and  loyalty  to  Christ,  but  one  of  less  fealty  to  the  de- 
nomination as  well.  The  plea  that  various  denomina- 
tions present  various  phases  of  truth  to  fit  various 
types  of  mind  falls  down  utterly  before  a  candid  search 
of  fact.  On  the  mission  field  the  practice  of  "delimi- 
tation of  territory  "  annuls  such  an  apology.  If  Metho- 
dists take  one  field  and  Baptists  another  in  the  Philip- 
pines, is  it  because  men  have  searched  and  found  that 
one  district  presents  a  type  of  mind  that  the  one  de- 
nomination fits  and  the  other  does  not?  It  is  simply 
because  there  is  a  great  need,  and  in  its  presence  all 
thought  of  "types  of  mind"  is  lost  and  the  two  denomi- 
nations agree  together,  that,  in  the  interest  of  their 
great  common  cause,  they  will  not  divide  communities 
and  compete  for  souls,  but  will  co-operate  for  their 
evangelization.  And  they  each  find  that  the  other 
makes  quite  as  good  Christians  as  itself.  Missions 
are  saddled  with  our  home  divisions,  but  are  trying 
to  meet  the  issue  on  the  lines  of  least  resistance. 

One  of  the  dramatic  moments  of  the  Edinburgh 
Conferences  was  when  a  native  Chinese  delegate  ad- 

216 


THE  SOCIAL  WAY  OF  UNITY 

dressed  the  gathering  with  a  plea  for  union.  He  re- 
minded the  assembled  delegates  that  whatever  our 
traditional  differences  meant  to  us,  they  meant  nothing 
to  them.  Bishop  Root  says  we  must  lead  the  Chinese 
churches  into  union  or  forfeit  our  right  to  leadership. 
In  Japan  the  mission  churches  tend  to  unity  as  rapidly 
as  they  become  self-supporting.  On  no  field  would 
the  denominational  divisions  long  prevail  if  the  churches 
were  self-supporting,  nor  will  they  after  self-support 
is  possible.  The  forms  of  government  and  the  creedal 
statements  we  have  taken  to  them  are  barriers,  but 
they  will  not  be  insuperable,  for  while  we  have  been 
using  them  in  our  evangelization  we  have  been  so 
dominated  by  the  unifying  spirit  of  Christ  in  the  real 
fundamental  work  we  have  been  doing,  that  the  spirit 
will  conquer  the  letter,  and  union  will  win  over  form. 
At  the  New  York  Ecumenical  Conference  in  1900 
the  missionaries  pleaded  for  unify  and  the  delegates 
from  home  for  comity  only.  At  the  Edinburgh  Con- 
ference in  1910  missionaries  denounced  sectarianism 
as  a  sin  and  all  pleaded  for  union  in  the  task.  Union 
is  coming  by  way  of  the  mission  field.  At  home  we 
have  a  Christian  civilization  and  are  satisfied.  On  the 
mission  field  there  is  a  pagan  or  a  savage  state  of  so- 
ciety, and  the  missionary  is  confronted  by  such  ap- 
palling necessities  that  he  is  driven  to  unite  all  forces 
to  effect  their  overthrow.  The  churches  at  home  are 
less  concerned  about  co-operation  in  just  the  measure 
that  they  are  less  concerned  about  Christianizing  the 
whole  earth.  To  the  missionary,  confronted  by  the 
appalling  evils  of  heathenism,  opinions,  traditions, 
forms  of  worship,  and  methods  of  church  government 

217 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

count  for  little,  and  the  victory  over  heathenism  counts 
for  everything.  Their  infant  churches  are  surrounded 
by  heathen  practice  and  need  all  the  help  unity  can 
give.  Here  at  home  we  are  afflicted  with  a  social 
inertia  that  makes  movements  away  from  the  old  moor- 
ings difficult.  Out  on  the  frontier  the  worker  thinks 
less  of  what  means  he  shall  use  than  that  he  shall  use 
the  most  effective  means  that  can  be  devised.  They 
hold  fast  to  eternal  principles,  but  they  are  much  more 
ready  to  adopt  working  expedients  and  become  all 
things  to  all  men,  if  by  any  means  they  may  win  some. 
They  are  doing  what  Dr.  J.  P.  Jones,  for  twenty-five 
years  a  Congregational  missionary  in  India,  pleads 
that  we  all  do,  i.  e.,  "  Place  more  emphasis  on  the  King- 
dom of  God."  We  will  then,  he  adds,  "Cease  to  at- 
tach so  much  importance  to  forms  of  church  organiza- 
tion," and  he  might  have  added,  as  indeed  he  does 
in  other  words  and  in  many  ways,  to  opinions  and 
traditional  attachments,  and  to  all  else  that  keeps  us 
apart. 

It  is  emphasis  on  the  Kingdom  of  God  that  is  most 
needed.  On  the  mission  field  the  conception  that 
Christianity  is  to  be  planted  in  the  life  and  custom 
of  the  people  is  well  grounded.  Once  men  went  with 
the  idea  of  merely  rescuing  whom  they  could  from  the 
lost  masses  of  heathenism.  They  believed  every  pagan 
faith  to  be  at  enmity  with  God,  and  entertained  little 
hope  of  rescuing  whole  civilizations  and  races  to  a  Chris- 
tian manner  of  living.  To-day  the  typical  missioner 
finds  much  in  the  native  religions  that  are  voices  in  the 
wilderness,  pointing  to  a  better  way,  and  he  seeks  to 
show  how  Christianity  fulfills  their  inadequate  leadings. 

218 


THE  SOCIAL  WAY  OF  UNITY 

He  discovers  hidden  lodes  of  human  wealth  under  the 
debris  of  heathenism  and  seeks  to  bring  it  to  light  by 
his  Christian  appeal.  He  pursues  the  gospel  method 
of  winning  men  one  by  one,  but  looks  upon  each  one 
as  new  leaven  in  the  lump  of  native  life  about  him,  and 
lives  in  the  faith  that  it  will  take  only  a  considerable 
minority  of  such  transformed  lives  to  begin  to  lift  up 
the  whole  mass.  When  the  leaven  begins  to  work  he 
has  a  vast  force  to  aid  him  in  the  amending  social 
ideals  of  the  unconverted  multitudes.  Every  art  that 
adds  to  the  comfort  of  life,  every  moral  compulsion 
that  brings  a  little  more  of  the  saving  salt  of  righteous- 
ness, every  ideal  that  adds  a  new  star  in  the  pall  of 
darkness  and  lightens  the  pathway  to  unguided  feet, 
every  constraint  of  mercy  that  softens  the  heart  of 
heathen  hardness,  every  newly  awakened  human  sym- 
pathy, every  newly  welded  bond  of  patriotism,  every 
abandoned  cruelty  in  ancient  custom,  and  all  else  that 
adds  to  the  joy  of  living,  increases  fraternity,  culti- 
vates sympathy  and  confidence  in  human  kind,  and 
makes  life  better  worth  living,  he  counts  as  a  part  of 
that  "more  abundant  life"  Jesus  came  to  give  to  men, 
and  as  a  contribution  to  the  coming  of  that  Kingdom 
of  God  he  came  to  establish  in  the  earth. 

Missionaries  find  no  difficulty  in  co-operating  in 
those  things  that  all  the  world  recognizes  as  matters 
of  Christian  charity  and  righteousness.  In  those 
things  does  the  Kingdom  of  God  consist  and  for  them 
the  church  was  founded.  It  is  only  in  the  measure 
that  Christendom  has  become  concerned  over  the  means 
whereby  the  world  shall  be  saved,  more  than  it  has 
over  the  saving  of  the  world,  that  it  has  neglected 

219 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

"righteousness,  peace,  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Spirit," 
while  tithing  the  mint,  anise,  and  cummin  of  olcgies 
and  polities.  Less  zeal  for  an  ism  and  more  for  the 
weal  of  men  will  unite  the  church  in  the  course  of  time. 
There  is  no  denominationalism  in  easing  pain  or  curing 
bodies;  why  should  there  be  in  "binding  up  the  broken- 
hearted," or  in  the  "cure  of  souls?"  The  missions 
co-operate  in  medical  schools  and  in  education.  They 
operate  mission  presses  in  co-operation.  They  present 
z.  united  front  in  appeals  to  governments,  and  in  pro- 
tests against  their  detractors.  The  Mission  to  Lepers 
finds  no  difficulty  in  operating  through  all  missions. 
The  Christian  Literature  Societies  of  China  and  India 
and  the  Religious  Tract  Society  find  all  doors  open  to 
their  contributions  to  the  common  cause.  Union  is 
easy  in  doing  famine  or  flood  or  epidemic  relief  work. 
United  effort  has  been  exerted  against  such  crying 
social  evils  as  slavery,  foot-binding,  infanticide,  the 
treatment  of  woman,  the  opium  traffic,  caste,  the  liquor 
trade,  the  Congo  atrocities,  and  every  other  form  of 
evil  that  afflicts  or  threatens  humanity.  To  build 
two  medical  schools  where  one  would  give  more  pro- 
ficient training,  or  to  put  hospitals  into  competition, 
would  not  be  thought  of  on  the  mission  field  to-day. 
Books  are  translated  by  union  committees  and  used 
by  all.  The  missions  in  Japan,  West  China,  and  South 
India  issue  year  books  that  treat  the  field  as  a  unity 
and  emphasize  the  co-operation  existing.  The  Chinese 
Recorder  and  Missionary  Journal,  the  West  China 
Missionary  News,  and  the  United  Church  Herald 
of   South  India  are  union  journals,  and  many  others 

220 


THE  SOCIAL  WAY  OF  UNITY 

co-operate   in   publication.     All   contiguous   missions 
meet  for  prayer  and  conference. 

There  is  no  division  in  regard  to  the  great  funda- 
mentals of  doctrine.  All  missionary  communions  hold 
to  the  Fatherhood  of  God,  the  Lordship  of  Christ,  the 
sufficiency  of  the  Scriptures  as  a  rule  of  faith  and 
practice,  and  to  the  church  as  representing  the  living 
body  of  the  Savior.  Each  believes  that  the  others  are 
Christian  and  that  they  are  helping  to  bring  the  King- 
dom of  God  into  the  earth — why  should  they  not 
labor  together  to  bring  it  more  quickly? 

3.    Breaking  Down  the  Walls  of  Division. 

The  divisions  of  Protestantism  are  not  ancient, 
nor  are  they  final.  No  one  denomination  expects  to 
absorb  all  others  and  become  the  final  church.  All 
recognize  that  the  needs  of  the  world  are  not  met  by 
the  things  that  divide,  but  by  the  things  that  unite. 
But  union  will  not  be  the  thing  of  a  day,  nor  will  it 
ever  be  effected  by  resolution.  Neither  will  it  come 
through  ecclesiastical  agreement,  but  it  will  come 
through  the  gradual  drawing  together  of  the  churches 
by  the  inspiration  of  an  overpowering  common  ob- 
jective, and  by  actual  co-operation  in  the  common 
tasks. 

The  overwhelming  present  need  is  the  drawing 
together  of  the  workers  in  the  common  task.  It  is 
through  unity  and  co-operation  that  union  will  come. 
The  tendencies  are  shown  in  great  inter-missionary 
conferences  like  the  Decennial  Conference  in  India, 
the  fourth  of  which  is  about  to  be  held;  the  South 

221 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

African  Conference,  three  of  which  have  already  been 
held;  the  Shanghai  Conference,  which  was  the  first 
of  a  series  that  will  become  a  regular  feature  of  the 
work  in  China;  the  regular  Japanese  meetings  for  all 
missions,  and  the  great  Pan-Islamic  Conference;  all 
these  are  cultivating  the  way  to  larger  co-operation. 
Sectional  conferences  are  held  in  almost  every  field 
where  there  are  contiguous  stations.  City  associa- 
tions are  uniformly  organized  in  all  the  mission  centers. 
Departmental  meetings  to  consider  various  phases  of 
the  work  cross  denominational  lines;  they  are  held 
to  consider  such  problems  as  education,  medical  work, 
literary  output,  work  for  women,  and  industrial  train- 
ing. Such  conferences  make  the  workers  acquainted 
and  emphasize  to  their  minds  the  advantages  in  co- 
operation and  the  power  in  common  effort. 

In  India,  West  China,  and  South  Africa,  Boards 
of  Arbitration  have  been  established.  They  decide 
all  matters  of  difference  and  help  to  formulate  concrete 
ways  and  means  for  co-operation.  In  the  first  of  these 
thirty  missions  are  united,  every  mission  board  but 
two  accepting  the  co-operation.  In  the  second 
every  mission  and  board  operating  in  the  territory 
have  joined,  and  in  the  last  all  but  one.  In  the  Philip- 
pines all  but  the  Episcopalians  have  entered  the 
"Iglesia  Evangelica,"  or  Evangelical  Church,  and  the 
field  is  divided  so  as  to  prevent  overlapping.  In 
Japan  all  but  the  high  church  Anglicans  and  the 
American  Episcopalians  are  in  the  union  for  promotion 
of  "The  Christian  Movement  in  Japan."  In  Korea 
the  Methodist  and  Presbyterian  bodies  have  divided 
the  field,  and  in  making  the  readjustment  transferred 

222 


THE  SOCIAL  WAY  OF  UNITY 

churches  and  members  from  one  communion  to  the 
other,  and  that  without  friction.  Indeed,  it  seemed 
to  add  vigor  to  their  common  cause.  In  West  China 
free  interchange  of  members  is  practiced.  India  is 
working  to  the  same  end  and  many  missions  practice 
it  independently.  The  mission  church  can  not  deny 
fellowship  to  one  who  bears  the  name  of  Christ  and 
who  is  almost  sure  to  be  lost  amid  the  overpowering 
influences  of  the  old  heathen  life  if  he  is  out  of  fellow- 
ship with  his  brethren;  fellowship  is  given  even  if 
full  membership  is  not. 

In  facing  Western  civilization  China  recognizes 
that  the  school  offers  the  royal  road  to  progress,  and 
she  is  founding  a  national  school  system.  The  mis- 
sionaries are  confronted  with  the  task  of  injecting 
Christian  morals  into  the  new  learning  of  the  empire. 
They  find  it  necessary  and  easy  to  rise  above  de- 
nominational lines  in  giving  instruction.  Equipment 
and  an  able  teaching  force  can  not  be  provided  other- 
wise. Efficiency  counts  for  everything  in  creating 
the  new  education  for  that  empire,  for  they  have  long 
had  scholarship  and  have  keen  minds  for  learning. 
The  Nankin  University  is  a  union  of  Methodist,  Dis- 
ciple, and  Presbyterian  schools.  In  West  China  the 
new  university  at  Chengtu  is  being  founded  by  the 
co-operation  of  all  the  great  missionary  societies  work- 
ing there,  and  the  charter  provides  that  all  new- 
comers may  have  a  part  in  its  management  upon  enter- 
ing the- field.  In  North  China  the  British  Congrega- 
tionalists  and  the  Presbyterians  have  a  joint  Education 
Association  that  manages  four  colleges,  supported  by 
these  two  bodies.     In  Korea  the  colleges  are  union 

223 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

institutions.  In  India  Madras  College,  one  of  the 
famous  old  Christian  schools,  has  followed  the  example 
of  the  older  denominational  institutions  in  the  United 
States  by  becoming  independent  and  interdenomina- 
tional. The  famous  Doshisha  in  Japan  is  practically 
the  same.  In  Shangtung,  China,  English  Baptists, 
American  Presbyterians,  and  Anglicans  co-operate 
in  the  management  of  three  colleges,  and  will  unite 
them  into  a  university  after  the  English  plan.  All 
over  China  the  movement  for  the  standardization 
of  all  mission  schools  is  progressing,  and  secretaries 
to  superintend  it  will  be  supported  jointly.  The 
tendency  is  strong  there  for  union  colleges  with  Bib- 
lical seminaries  grouped  about  them.  Yale  College 
at  Hankow,  Christian  College  at  Canton,  and  the  uni- 
versity projected  by  Oxford  and  Cambridge  at  Han- 
kow, are  examples  of  the  effort  being  made  for  the 
education  of  China  by  Christian  influences  that  are 
broader  than  denominational  interests.  There  are 
union  theological  schools  at  Tokio,  Bangalore,  Nanking, 
and  Amoy.  In  Manila  a  union  university  is  being 
projected.  In  Central  China  a  movement  is  on  looking 
toward  the  founding  of  a  great  union  training  school 
for  evangelists  and  native  teachers.  The  leaders  of 
the  future  church  in  the  mission  field  will  not  defend 
sectarian  differences  after  being  educated  in  the  same 
schools  and  by  the  united  effort  of  several  denomina- 
tional boards.  In  the  field  of  medical  training  there 
is  little  division  of  effort.  In  Peking  five  great  so- 
cieties support  one  superb  school.  A  like  project 
is  under  way  at  Chengtu,  in  connection  with  the  new 
union   university   there,    and    Nanking   University   is 

224 


THE  SOCIAL  WAY  OF  UNITY 

seeking  to  found  another.  Hospitals  are  supported 
by  denominational  societies,  but  they  know  no  de- 
nominational lines  in  their  work;  at  Iloilo  Presbyterians 
and  Baptists  have  united  in  the  support  of  one.  All 
medical  associations  are  union,  as  are  all  educational 
associations.  There  is  no  division  in  the  doing  of 
good.  Union  evangelistic  efforts  are  found  feasible, 
and  every  co-operative  effort  brings  to  light  new  and 
mightier  means  for  evangelizing  the  world. 

It  is  very  natural  for  union  sentiment  to  bring 
about  the  amalgamation  of  subdivisions  in  the  larger 
denominational  bodies.  This  is  taking  place  to  a  re- 
markable degree  on  the  mission  fields.  The  best 
known  instance  is  that  of  the  Presbyterian  and  Re- 
formed bodies  in  Japan.  Six  different  synodical 
bodies  have  united  there  and  taken  the  name,  "Church 
of  Christ  in  Japan."  The  eight  Presbyterian  bodies 
in  China  have  divided  the  empire  into  six  districts, 
or  synods,  and  are  moving  toward  a  national  Presby- 
terian church.  It  is  to  be  hoped  they  will  adopt  the 
same  unifying  name  they  are  using  in  Japan.  In 
India  seven  churches  with  the  Presbyterial,  or  rep- 
resentative, form  of  government  have  united  into  The 
Presbyterian  Church  in  India,  while  the  four  working 
in  Korea  have  formed  an  independent  Presbyterian 
Church  for  that  Kingdom.  The  synodical  form  of 
government  seems  to  make  union  easy,  because  of  its 
representative  character.  The  Episcopal  form  lends  it- 
self less  easily  to  such  amalgamation,  as  each  bishopric 
has  a  fealty  to  preserve.  In  Japan  they  have  a  work- 
ing union  that  promises  a  national  church  with  Episco- 
pal government.  The  Methodists  have  already  united 
IS  225 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

there  and  have  a  native  bishop.  As  is  usual,  the  native 
churches  found  means  for  union  easy;  the  churches 
that  were  supporting  them  from  the  home  field  found 
assent  more  difficult.  The  various  Lutheran  bodies 
in  all  Asiatic  fields  are  moving  toward  union.  In 
India  the  various  Baptists  bodies  are  uniting.  In 
Madagascar  the  Congregationalists  and  other  inde- 
pendents found  no  difficulty  in  getting  together,  and 
likewise  in  Amoy,  China.  The  more  democratic 
churches  of  Congregational  government  have  done 
less  in  a  formal  way,  but  practice  a  degree  of  unity 
that  no  other  missions  do,  just  because  there  are  fewer 
formalities  in  the  way.  Their  conferences  answer 
informally  where  mere  highly  governed  ecclesiastical 
bodies  must  have  formal  agreements. 

But  the  union  of  denominational  families  is  not 
final.  It  is  a  step  forward,  but  the  main  lines  of  di- 
vision are  still  preserved.  Geographical  union,  or 
the  union  of  all  bodies  within  a  certain  territory,  is 
union  indeed.  This  crosses  all  lines  of  division  and 
considers  only  the  common  good.  The  Shanghai 
Conference  resulted  in  the  "Christian  Federation  of 
China,"  whose  purpose  is  "to  encourage  the  sentiment 
and  practice  of  union,"  and  "to  hasten  the  establish- 
ment of  the  Kingdom  of  God  in  China."  They  ap- 
pointed a  committee  to  stimulate  every  kind  of  co- 
operation and  union  effort.  In  Japan  the  older  Evan- 
gelical Alliance  is  undertaking  the  same  kind  of  effort. 
At  Nairobe,  in  East  Africa,  eight  missions,  representing 
bodies  as  far  apart  as  Baptists  and  Episcopalians,  have 
formed  a  like  working  alliance.  In  West  China,  one 
of  the  virgin  fields  and  a  leader  in  all  such  forward 

226 


THE  SOCIAL  WAY  OF  UNITY 

movements,  an  Advisory  Council  has  been  effective  for 
ten  years,  and  has  now  issued  a  declaration  favoring 
"one  Protestant  Christian  Church  for  West  China." 
They  practice  free  interchange  of  members  just  as 
the  churches  of  one  communion  do,  and  all  are  happy 
in  the  fraternal  concord  of  it.  In  India,  after  nearly 
every  mission  body  had  passed  resolutions  favoring 
it,  the  great  Interdenominational  Conference,  held  at 
Jubbulpore  in  1909,  organized  "The  Federation  of 
Christian  Churches  in  India."  They  welcome  to 
membership  "all  churches  and  societies  that  believe 
in  God  through  Jesus  Christ,  and  that  accept  the  word 
of  God  as  contained  in  the  Old  and  New  Testaments 
as  the  supreme  rule  of  faith  and  practice."  They  ap- 
pointed provincial  councils  and  committees  on  unity, 
and  directed  them  to  secure  actual  union  wherever 
possible.  They  are  endeavoring  to  find  a  basis  for  the 
interchange  of  members,  and  are  cultivating  a  sense  of 
oneness  in  the  native  mind,  preparatory  to  that  actual 
union  which  they  pray  may  come.  The  problems  of 
baptism  and  the  form  of  church  government  present 
the  most  formidable  obstacles. 

The  most  significant  of  all  union  movements, 
however,  has  been  brought  to  successful  conclusion 
in  South  India,  the  oldest  of  all  mission  fields,  and  the 
scene  of  the  greatest  missionary  successes  offered  in 
lands  where  there  is  a  native  culture.  It  is  the  most 
significant  because  it  is  the  first  complete  unification 
of  different  denominational  bodies  yet  effected  on  a 
large  scale,  and  because  it  gives  promise  of  what  other 
mission  fields  may  do  as  they  grow  older  and  more 
mature  in  their  native  conceptions  of  Christianity. 

227 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

Previous  to  1907  the  various  Congregational  bodies 
in  South  India  united  into  one  organic  communion. 
In  that  year  they  invited  the  Presbyterian  bodies 
to  affiliate  with  them.  The  overture  was  accepted, 
and  release  was  asked  from  the  synod  of  the  Presby- 
terian Church  of  India.  This  was  granted,  and  a 
union  church  of  140,000  members  was  organized  under 
the  name  of  the  South  India  United  Church.  Ne- 
gotiations are  now  being  carried  on  with  the  German 
Reformed  and  Lutheran  bodies  working  in  that  sec- 
tion, and  there  are  signs  of  promise  that  not  only 
they,  but,  in  course  of  time,  all  bodies  of  Christians 
in  South  India  will  come  into  the  union,  and  there 
will  be  one  simple  Christian  Church  that  will  rank  in 
members  with  many  of  the  Christian  communions 
at  home. 

The  Edinburgh  Commission  on  Co-operation  and 
Union  found  many  difficulties  in  the  way  of  actual 
organic  union,  but  declared  that  somewhere  beneath 
them  all  must  be  found  the  deeper  unities  and  the  true 
spirit  of  Christ,  in  which  alone  we  can  answer  his 
prayer  for  union. 

4.    The  Day  of  Opportunity. 

That  eminent  missionary  statesman,  John  R. 
Mott,  in  his  recent  book  entitled,  "The  Decisive 
Hour  of  Christian  Missions,"  says  that  in  the  face  of 
the  opportunities  of  to-day,  overlapping,  waste,  and 
friction  on  the  mission  field  are  sinful.  He  contends 
that  the  question  of  union  is  not  primarily  doctrinal, 
but  moral.  God  holds  the  church  responsible  for  the 
conquest  of  the  world,  and  if  she  allows  the  victory 

228 


THE  SOCIAL  WAY  OF  UNITY 

to  wait  and  men  to  be  lost  while  she  bickers  over  tra- 
ditions and  opinions  and  politics,  she  is  morally  guilty 
of  a  recreancy  to  opportunity.  Mr.  Mott  says,  "The 
hope  of  real  success  in  taking  the  gospel  to  all  the  non- 
Christian  world  in  our  day  is  in  a  campaign  character- 
ized by  the  spirit  of  unity."  If  the  church  were  one, 
as  the  Master  prayed,  the  world  would  soon  be  led  to 
believe.  Instead  of  millions  wasted  in  duplicating 
plants  for  church  work  at  home,  it  could  be  sent  where 
the  need  was  greatest.  Villages  with  five  churches 
could  be  well  provided  with  edifices,  be  ministered 
unto  by  a  much  better  type  of  preaching,  pay  more 
adequate  salaries,  and  send  as  much  as  they  keep  for 
home  work  to  the  more  needy  tasks  of  the  foreign 
field.  Great  city  congregations  that  build  magnificent 
edifices  on  opposite  corners  and  spend  tens  of  thousands 
on  competing  orators  and  choirs  could  make  every 
slum  and  foreign  quarter  of  the  city  a  missionary 
parish,  and  then  send  tens  of  thouasnds  to  those  who 
never  heard  the  gospel  they  hold  in  common  but  follow 
in  division.  Money  spent  on  denominational  estab- 
lishments for  the  sake  of  specific  sectarian  propaganda 
would  reach  a  multitude  with  a  healing  hand  where 
it  opens  wounds  of  discord  in  the  body  of  Christ  here 
at  home.  The  missionary  is  less  concerned  about 
the  things  that  divide.  Christ  is  all  in  all  to  him  be- 
cause the  need  is  so  great  and  Christ  alone  is  sufficient. 
Hudson  Taylor  said  the  China  Inland  Mission  "re- 
garded it  of  secondary  importance  by  whom  the 
sheaves  were  garnered."  "Our  divisions  inflict  serious 
wounds  on  the  body  of  Christ,"  said  a  missionary  at 
the    Edinburgh    Conference.     But    union    will    never 

229 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

come  by  conference  or  by  platform;  it  will  come  by 
the  overpowering  force  of  a  great  objective.  When 
the  church  sees  the  world  as  its  Master  saw  it,  they 
will  unite  for  the  specific  purpose  of  saving  it  to  his 
manner  of  life. 

Opportunity  calls  for  a  conservation  of  forces. 
Never  before  were  such  openings  offered.  All  the 
world  is  now  practically  explored,  and  with  the  opening 
of  Tibet  and  Afghanistan  the  last  of  the  closed  lands 
are  opened.  There  are  regions  in  the  Soudan  where 
fanaticism  would  protest  and  doubtless  make  its 
martyrs,  but  that  it  can  be  entered  is  already  proven. 
Vast  areas  of  Central  Asia  are  yet  not  pre-empted, 
but  the  work  in  Manchuria  could  be  duplicated  in 
many  places  there.  The  great  Moslem  world  is  yield- 
ing to  a  more  tolerant  attitude,  and  in  Russia,  Persia, 
and  Turkey,  Mohammedans  are  willing  to  listen  to 
the  Christian  message.  "Religion  has  been  the  cause 
of  race  hatreds  and  individual  hatreds,  but  now  we 
are  learning  that  religion  may  be,  and  is  the  greatest 
band  to  bind  us  together  into  a  great  fellowship  in  the 
Fatherhood  of  a  common  God,"  said  one  of  the  leaders 
of  New  Turkey.  Christianity  should  take  the  bond 
of  unity  to  a  man  like  that.  Korea  is  reaping  the  great- 
est returns  of  any  field  open  to-day,  but  there  are  mil- 
lions not  won  in  Korea,  and  nothing  could  so  dis- 
courage the  native  church  as  a  spirit  of  divisiveness 
or  the  competition  of  denominational  enterprise  for 
their  fealty.  Siam  is  as  open  as  Korea,  and  Mada- 
gascar is  again  under  the  rule  of  a  favorable  governor. 
All  Africa  is  ready  for  a  Pentecost  if  only  a  generation 
of  time  be  given  and  an  army  of  efficient  men  and  wo- 

230 


THE  SOCIAL  WAY  OF  UNITY 

men  be  sent.  China  is  so  accessible  that  a  prominent 
missionary  there  says  no  land  is  more  open;  it  is  cer- 
tainly more  tolerant  and  open  to  a  free  message  to-day 
than  Russia.  Japan  has  passed  through  her  era  of 
reaction  and  opposition  and  is  yielding  as  never  be- 
fore; the  church  made  a  gain  of  70%  there  in  the  last 
decade.  The  ferment  in  India  will  issue  in  a  new  in- 
terest in  the  larger  things  of  the  world,  and  Christian- 
ity will  reap  a  great  harvest;  already  there  is  an  un- 
surpassed opportunity  to  garner  among  the  50,000,000 
low  and  out-castes  and  to  compete  with  Islam  for  their 
fealty.  Among  the  aboriginal  tribes  of  West  China 
there  have  been  great  ingatherings,  but  to  introduce 
a  divided  church  among  them  would  be  to  hinder  them 
and  lose  many.  There  is  no  way  to  answer  this  call 
of  the  cross  adequately  except  by  a  united  effort. 
John  Mott  believes  that  a  union  of  forces  to-day  would 
double  the  effectiveness  of  the  host  upon  the  field; 
it  would  certainly  more  than  double  the  power  of  the 
church  at  home  to  occupy  the  territory  open. 

The  peoples  of  the  earth  are  to-day  awakened  by 
the  new  internationalism.  The  victory  of  Japan  over 
Russia,  the  peaceful  revolution  of  China  and  Turkey, 
the  vast  spread  of  commerce,  the  awakening  that  the 
missionary  has  taken  into  every  quarter  of  the  globe, 
the  quickened  means  of  transportation,  the  railways 
into  the  heart  of  Africa  and  China  and  across  Arabia, 
the  recognition  of  the  Orient  in  international  confer- 
ences, the  unrest  of  India,  the  opening  of  the  great 
Soudan  by  England  and  France,  the  drawing  of  the 
nations  together  in  The  Hague  Tribunal,  the  universal 
dissemination  of  cheap  literature,  the  new  peace  and 

231 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

the  promised  prosperity  of  South  America,  and  the 
universal  progress  of  democracy  in  all  the  nations 
have  opened  the  minds  of  men  as  they  have  never  been 
opened  before.  Old  prejudices  and  provincialism  are 
on  the  wane  and  a  larger  view  of  the  world  is  becoming 
universal.  The  spirit  of  national  independence  is 
growing  among  subject  peoples,  learning  is  becoming 
universalized,  and  science  is  spreading  its  evangelism 
of  fact  where  superstition  has  reigned;  all  too  often 
learning  has  taken  with  it  a  spurious  and  short-visioned 
skepticism,  and  commerce  a  materialism  that  will  be 
difficult  to  uproot,  once  it  is  well  attached  to  a  people. 
Wars  may  arise  in  the  friction  that  comes  with  a  new 
found  independence,  racial  hatreds  will  grow  as  subject 
races  cultivate  patriotism  and  a  sense  of  independence, 
the  customary  haughtiness  of  a  "superior"  race  will  be 
resented  by  the  rising  of  "inferior"  peoples,  and  unless 
there  is  a  gospel  of  peace  to  spread  an  effective  evangel, 
trouble  will  be  an  inevitable  accompaniment  of  the 
new  age.  If  the  nations  and  peoples  are  allowed  to 
open  minds  to  the  larger  world  and  to  judge  it  by  its 
past  treatment  of  them,  and  by  the  spirit  of  the  trader 
and  politician  alone,  there  can  be  only  resentment  in 
their  hearts;  but  if  there  can  be  sown  in  their  hearts 
the  message  of  humanity,  the  truth  of  Christianity 
as  distinct  from  the  acts  of  so-called  Christian  men  and 
nations,  the  confidence  it  gives  every  man  in  the  better 
nature  of  himself  and  of  his  fellow-man,  and  the  in- 
spiring facts  that  history  has  to  tell  the  unbiased  mind 
of  its  contributions  to  the  evolution  of  civilization, 
the  new  world  that  is  to  come  may  be  born  without 
the  birthpangs  of  medievalism,   and   the  evangel   of 

232 


\h  "^A 


THE  SOCIAL  WAY  OF  UNITY 

peace  will  become  the  harbinger  of  a  true  internation- 
alism founded  upon  brotherly  love. 

The  native  church  on  the  mission  field  desires 
union.  It  will  be  a  sad  blow  to  its  future  effective- 
ness if  we  insist  on  drilling  it  in  our  traditions  and  set- 
ting its  plastie  life  firmly  into  our  Western  moulds. 
Mr.  Chang  Ching-Yi,  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  native 
Chinese  church,  said  at  the  Edinburgh  Conference: 
"Speaking  plainly,  we  hope  to  see  in  the  near  future 
a  united  Christian  church  without  any  denominational 
distinctions.  It  is  not  your  particular  denomination 
that  you  are  working  for,  but  for  the  establishment 
of  the  Church  of  Christ  in  China."  "I  can  conceive 
of  no  figure  of  speech  that  will  justify  division  of  the 
church,"  said  J.  Campbell  Gibson,  of  China,  one  of  the 
greatest  of  living  missionaries;  "the  church  is  the  body 
of  Christ  in  Scriptural  figure,  and  to  divide  it  is  to 
rend  it  and  to  give  it  pain  and  to  destroy  its  useful- 
ness." The  great  tasks  of  evangelism  and  the  planting 
of  both  Christian  character  and  Christian  philan- 
thropy in  the  mission  field  is  to  be  largely  the  work 
of  the  native  church.  What  could  be  more  disastrous 
than  to  divide  the  forces  and  set  them  in  competition; 
what  more  wasteful  than  to  leave  them  a  spirit  of  con- 
tention, and  what  less  of  the  spirit  of  Christ  than  to 
turn  their  minds  against  one  another  when  millions 
await  their  united  efforts.  The  call  of  the  time  is 
that  the  evangel  shall  be  effective,  that  the  day  be 
hastened,  and  that  the  native  church  be  panoplied 
with  the  instruments  of  a  holy  warfare,  and  not  bur- 
dened down  with  the  useless  weapons  of  tradition, 
Western  opinion,  or  any  sort  of  divisiveness. 

233 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

If  it  was  the  desire  of  the  Savior's  heart  that  the 
nations  should  be  at  peace,  we  shall  best  lead  them  if 
we  are  united ;  if  it  was  his  desire  that  they  should  have 
his  gospel  and  his  prayer  that  his  disciples  be  one  that 
the  world  might  believe,  we  shall  best  serve  him  by  at 
least  refraining  from  carrying  our  divisions  to  the  mis- 
sion field;  if  it  be  our  own  desire  that  the  church  be 
in  that  unity  that  will  make  it  effective  in  the  world 
and  pleasing  to  its  great  head,  we  shall  best  realize 
our  desire  by  enlisting  the  churches  in  the  overwhelming 
task  of  bringing  the  world  into  his  Kingdom.  It  will 
cost  the  sacrifice  that  every  great  quest  costs,  but 
no  truth  will  be  sacrificed,  only  our  half-truths.  It 
will  be  realized  only  as  we  forget  self  in  the  mighty 
crusade. 

5.    The  Call  of  the  Cross. 

What  we  call  the  Lord's  Prayer  was  really  the  dis- 
ciple's prayer.  The  real  Lord's  Prayer  is  that  final 
petition  which  comes  to  us  like  a  call  from  the  cross. 
It  was  that  we  might  all  be  one  that  the  world  might 
believe  that  he  was  sent.  It  was  not  a  prayer  for  mere 
unity  and  co-operation.  It  was  that  we  might  be 
one,  even  as  he  and  the  Father  were  one.  It  was  for 
a  real  and  organic  unity.  It  was  that  the  union  which 
characterized  his  disciples  at  that  moment  might  al- 
ways prevail.  A  divided  church  will  never  conquer  a 
world.  In  the  early  days  of  the  Reformation  the 
leaders  openly  preached  that  missions  were  God's 
business,  not  ours.  They  were  interested  in  specula- 
tive theologies,  and  thought  more  of  correct  definitions 
than  of  evangelizing  a  world.     They  thought  the  doc- 

234 


THE  SOCIAL  WAY  OF  UNITY 

trine  must  be  formulated  properly  or  there  could  be  no 
salvation.  Luther  denounced  Zwingli  in  terms  which 
burned  with  terror  because  the  Swiss  reformer  differed 
from  him  in  regard  to  the  Lord's  Supper.  They  had 
not  learned  with  Christ  that  to  do  the  will  of  God  was 
the  divine  way  of  learning  the  true  doctrine.  Religion 
was  more  concerned  with  political  affairs  than  with 
world-wide  missions,  and  it  was  freely  taught  that  the 
only  missionary  obligation  was  that  resting  upon 
governments  in  their  colonial  administrations.  Good 
theologians  frankly  denounced  the  heathen  as  unworthy 
of  salvation  and  called  some  who  tried  to  take  the 
gospel  to  them  insane  fanatics.  As  a  result  there  was 
no  missionary  work  of  importance  during  the  first 
two  centuries  after  the  beginning  of  the  Reformation, 
but  there  were  a  number  of  divisions  brought  into  the 
church,  and  the  spirit  that  each'  sect  maintained  toward 
the  other  was  anything  but  that  of  their  divine  Lord 
in  his  prayer  for  their  union.  That  we  are  not  yet 
purged  of  that  ecclesiastical  spirit  all  must  acknowledge. 
We  shall  be  under  the  incubus  of  it  for  some  time  no 
doubt,  for  there  will  be  narrow-minded  partisans,  and 
even  leaders  who  will  be  more  devoted  to  their  sect 
than  to  the  Kingdom  of  God,  until  the  spirit  of  fra- 
ternity so  sweeps  over  the  church  that  it  carries  them 
off  their  feet  and  hastens  them  along  with  a  provi- 
dential tide. 

That  day  is  fast  approaching  when  the  spirit  of 
brotherhood  will  so  seize  upon  the  Church  of  Christ 
that  there  will  be  few  apologists  left  for  sectarianism 
and  partisanship.  The  whole  tide  in  the  affairs  of  men 
is  toward  greater  unity.     Nations  are  merging  from 

235 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

separated  states  into  more  closely  annealed  unities, 
as  witness  in  our  own  country,  Germany,  China,  India, 
Australia,  and  South  Africa.  The  whole  world  is 
drawing  together.  The  cable  and  telegraph,  the  swift 
locomotive  and  express  steamship,  wireless  and  the 
aeroplane,  are  abolishing  distances  and  making  all 
the  world  acquainted.  Intelligence  of  one  another 
brings  understanding  and  abolishes  prejudices.  Trade 
and  travel  are  welding  us  together  with  the  metallic 
bonds  of  common  interest.  War  was  once  pleaded 
for  as  a  maker  of  trade  and  a  creator  of  virile  manhood. 
To-day  commercial  bodies  are  foremost  in  denouncing 
it  as  a  destroyer  of  trade,  and  sociologists  as  the  great- 
est devastator  of  the  strength  of  nations.  But  a  little 
while  ago,  as  history  records  time,  nations  preyed 
upon  one  another,  and  all  the  world  believed  that  to 
the  strong  belonged  the  battle.  To-day  no  nation 
enters  an  imperialistic  campaign  without  attempting 
to  convince  all  the  world  that  it  is  in  the  interests  of 
the  weaker  peoples  and  for  the  good  of  the  conquered. 
The  interests  of  humanity  are  becoming  one,  and  men 
are  recognizing  that  co-operation  between  nations  and 
peoples  redound  to  mutual  benefit,  and  that  strife 
is  both  expensive  and  uncivilized. 

What  is  happening  between  the  nations  is  taking 
place  within  the  nations.  Co-operation  is  the  watch- 
word of  both  industry  and  commerce.  Cut-throat 
competition  is  expensive  and  must  die  the  death  of  all 
survivals  of  our  barbaric  life.  Men  have  found  that 
they  can  make  more  for  themselves  by  agreeing  to- 
gether than  by  trying  to  get  the  advantage  of  one 
another.     Labor  is  discovering  that  in  unity  lies  its 

236 


THE  SOCIAL  WAY  OF  UNITY 

only  hope  of  a  better  wage  and  a  higher  standard  of 
living.  Co-operation  is  the  watchword  of  the  age,  and 
it  registers  a  new  era  in  human  progress. 

This  spirit  of  the  age  is  nowhere  more  manifest 
than  in  the  church.  Every  city  has  its  evangelical 
alliance,  or  some  organization  that  corresponds  to  it. 
Several  States  have  church  federations,  and  the  Federal 
Council  of  Churches  is  equaled  only  by  the  English 
Free  Church  Council  in  the  magnitude  of  its  meaning 
as  a  unifier  of  Christian  activities.  There  are  few 
apologists  for  sectarianism  left,  and  pulpits  ring  elo- 
quently with  union  appeals  in  the  name  of  the  common 
faith  we  profess  and  the  common  task  we  have  to  do. 
In  Canada,  South  Africa,  and  Australia  genuine 
church  union  movements  are  in  progress.  In  South 
Africa  a  temporary  halt  has  been  called,  but  in  Canada 
the  churches  concerned  are  voting  two  to  one  for  the 
merger,  and  the  same  majority  obtains  in  Australia. 
In  the  United  States  the  various  Northern  Baptist 
bodies  are  uniting,  as  are  also  the  Presbyterians,  and 
all  denominations  are  conducting  negotiations  across 
the  mythical  Mason's  and  Dixon's  line  in  an  effort 
to  overcome  the  unfortunate  breaks  brought  on  by  the 
Civil  War.  The  same  process  of  first  drawing  to- 
gether the  denominational  families  into  the  larger 
denominational  unity  is  operating  at  home  as  on  the 
mission  field.  Where  they  lead  we  are  sure  to  follow. 
We  have  the  great  incubus  of  tradition,  lesser  zeal,  and 
the  vested  interests  of  denominational  societies  to 
deter  us,  but  awakening  missionary  interest  will  imbue 
us  with  the  same  spirit  that  has  been  moving  the  real 
missionaries. 

237 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

The  most  promising  sign  of  the  times,  however,  is 
the  universal  awakening  of  the  church  to  its  social 
duty.  It  has  moved  out  of  the  down-town  as  the  slum 
moved  in,  and  the  efforts  of  the  social  settlements 
to  do  what  it  would  not  undertake  is  rebuking  it  for 
social  negligence.  It  has  seen  every  form  of  social 
amelioration  undertaken  by  organizations  of  Chris- 
tians, organized  under  other  names  but  seldom  under 
her  auspices,  and  she  is  asking  why  she  has  been  unable 
to  meet  the  need  herself.  The  answer  is  her  divisions. 
She  has  been  taxed  to  support  duplicating  church 
organizations  and  had  nothing  left,  either  of  money 
or  men,  to  devote  to  the  greater  task  of  social  effort. 
She  has  unsparingly  denounced  Roman  Catholic 
ecclesiastical  and  doctrinal  errors,  but  been  compelled 
to  see  a  united  Catholic  church  rebuke  her  with  a 
charity  that  is  unexampled,  and  she  realizes  that  it 
is  not  Catholic  doctrine  but  Catholic  unity  that  has 
made  it  possible,  while  it  is  not  Protestant  doctrine 
but  Protestant  divisiveness  that  has  prevented  her 
from  doing  it.  The  late  Amory  Bradford  said  that 
he  found  in  one  town  in  Japan  four  little  Methodist 
missions,  each  of  which  had  to  be  visited  by  a  differ- 
ent bishop  from  home,  representing  the  sub-denomina- 
tional divisions  we  maintained,  and  the  expense  was 
paid  by  contributions  taken  in  pleas  for  the  heathen. 
The  mission  churches  saw  the  irony  of  such  a  condi- 
tion, and  those  four  missions  are  to-day  one,  with 
their  own  native  bishop  to  superintend  their 
work.  When  the  churches  at  home  awaken  to  an 
economic  sense  of  the  waste  involved  in  denomina- 

238 


THE  SOCIAL  WAY  OF  UNITY 

tional  duplication,  they  will  stop  it  on  the  home  mission 
field  as  they  are  already  stopping  it  on  the  foreign 
field.  "  Denominationalism,  as  a  principle,  is  doomed 
to  death,"  says  Canon  Hensley  Henson,  a  noted 
Anglican  clergyman.  It  will  net  be  undone  in  a  day, 
for  as  Robert  Speer  says,  "From  the  beginning  the 
greatest  evils  have  succeeded  in  rooting  themselves 
in  the  consciences  of  men,"  nor  will  it  be  done  by  ec- 
clesiastical procedure,  but  by  the  overwhelming  power 
of  a  great  objective,  such  as  the  conversion  of  the  world 
and  the  bringing  in  of  the  Kingdom  of  God. 

Missionaries  are  tremendously  impressed  with  the 
social  needs  of  the  world.  They  make  their  homes 
social  settlements,  and  adopt  institutional  methods  in 
their  churches.  They  wrestle  with  the  larger  social 
problems  in  their  active  ministries  and  grapple  with 
the  social  evils  of  heathenism  with  firm  and  steady 
hands.  "The  message  for  China,"  says  Frank  Gar- 
rett, of  Nanking,  Secretary  of  the  Evangelistic  Council 
for  China,  "is  the  message  of  the  prophets,  justice 
and  righteousness  and  God's  protecting  care.  The 
message  of  Amos  rings  out  as  though  it  were  written 
for  China  to-day.  What  China  needs  to-day  is  men 
of  the  type  of  the  old  prophets  of  Israel.  The  leading 
men  in  the  Chinese  ministry  to-day  preach  a  social 
and  national  message."  Just  because  this  larger  con- 
ception of  the  work  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  has  seized 
hold  upon  them,  they  have  less  interest  in  perpetuating 
divisions.  Fraternity  is  the  great  social  message  that 
Christians  must  bear  to  the  mission  fields,  and  they 
can  not  do  it  well  with  a  divided  church.     They  can 

239 


SOCIAL  WORK  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 

not  preach  the  full  gospel  while  their  hearers  are  asking 
why  they  are  divided,  if  there  is  but  one  Christ  and  one 
way  of  salvation.  So  the  missionaries  in  Japan  have 
declared  that  "all  who  are  one  in  Christ  by  faith  are 
one  body,"  and  those  in  China  have  united  in  the  dec- 
laration that  "in  planting  the  Church  of  Christ  on 
Chinese  soil,  we  desire  only  to  plant  one  church  under 
the  sole  control  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ."  In  Korea 
and  the  Philippines  the  missions,  with  one  exception, 
all  wear  one  name  and  banish  the  denominational 
title  to  a  parenthesis  that  can  be  easily  erased. 

The  call  of  the  Cross  is  a  call  to  united  service  in 
the  interests  of  all  humanity  and  of  all  that  benefits 
humanity.  Christ  said  more  about  this  world  than 
any  other  founder  of  a  great  religion.  He  did  not 
neglect  the  other,  nor  can  we  long  keep  a  message  for 
this  present  age  if  we  have  not  one  for  the  future,  but 
his  emphasis  was  upon  the  need  of  righteousness. 
Men  were  to  believe  unto  righteousness;  they  were 
to  seek  God  and  his  righteousness;  his  Kingdom  was 
one  of  righteousness,  and  he  died  that  men  might  be- 
come righteous.  To  do  justly,  love  mercy,  and  walk 
humbly  with  God  is  the  world's  great  social  need. 
Religion  only  can  constrain  it  to  such  ends,  and  Chris- 
tianity offers  the  divine  prescription  through  its  Lord. 
When  the  Christian  world  is  more  concerned  about 
living  Christ  than  it  is  about  defining  him,  it  will  come 
to  understand  him,  but  never  until  then.  The  mis- 
sionary faces  the  mighty  forces  of  heathenism  and  is 
enlisted  in  service  against  them.  He  sees  the  need  of  a 
solid  front  and  is  leading  Christendom  into  that  union, 
both  with  its  Lord  and  with  one  another,  for  which 

240 


THE  SOCIAL  WAY  OF  UNITY 

he  prayed  as  he  went  to  the  cross  to  lay  down  his  life 
for  the  world. 

And  what  dost  thou  answer  Him,  O  my  soul? 
Is  it  nothing  to  thee  as  the  ages  roll, 
That  the  Lord  of  Life  should  suffer  in  vain, 
That  He  who  was  Prince  in  the  Realm  of  Pain, 
Should  seek  for  the  sin-stricken  children  of  men, 
That  by  way  of  the  cross  He  might  bring  them  again 
To  the  fold  of  His  care — His  infinite  care, 
That  thou  shouldst  turn  from  this,  His  prayer, 
And  deaden  thine  ear  to  His  wondrous  plea, 
The  call  of  the  Christ  to  me? 

— By  Claude  Kelly,  in  Missions. 


16  241 


APPENDIX 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

The  following  list  of  books  is  selected  from  among 
those  consulted  in  the  preparation  of  this  volume: 

Dennis.  (Jas.  S.)  Christian  Missions  and  Social 
Progress.     Three  Vols.     Revell. 

Mackenzie.  (W.  D.)  Christianity  and  the  Progress 
of  Man.     Revell. 

Keen.  (W.  R.)  The  Service  of  Missions  to  Science 
and    Philanthropy.     Baptist    Missionary    Union. 

Grant.  (W.  H.)  Philanthropy  in  Missions.  For- 
eign Missions  Library,  New  York. 

Tenny.  (E.  P.)  Contrasts  in  Social  Progress.  Long- 
mans. 

Stevenson.  (R.  T.)  The  Missionary  Interpretation 
of  History.     Jennings  &  Graham. 

Mott.  (J.  R.)  The  Decisive  Hour  of  Christian  Mis- 
sions.    Student  Volunteer  Movement. 

Lindsay.     (A.    R.    B.)     Gloria    Christi.     Macmillans. 

Montgomery.  (H.  B.)  Western  Women  in  Eastern 
Lands.     Macmillans. 

Slater.  (T.  E.)  Missions  and  Sociology.  Elliot 
Stock.     London. 

Bryan.  (W.  J.)  Letters  to  a  Chinese  Official.  Mc- 
Clure  &  Phillips. 

Speer.     (R.  E.)     Christianity  and  the  Nations.  Revell. 

Speer.    (R.  E.)    Missions  and  Modern  History.  Revell. 

245 


APPENDIX 

Osgood.  (Dr.  E.  I.)  Breaking  Down  Chinese  Walls. 
Revell. 

Hunt.  (W.  R.)  Heathenism  Under  the  Searchlight. 
Morgan  &  Scott.     London. 

Faust.  (A.  K.)  Christianity  as  a  Social  Factor  in 
Japan.     University    of    Pennsylvania. 

Allan.  (G.  A.)  Civilization  and  Foreign  Missions. 
Elliot  Stock.     London. 

Fowler.  (C.  H.)  Missions  and  World  Movements. 
Jennings  &  Graham. 

Williamson.  (J.  R.)  The  Healing  of  the  Nations. 
Student   Volunteer   Movement. 

Edwards.  (M.  R.)  The  Work  of  the  Medical  Mis- 
sionary.    Student  Volunteer  Movement. 

Russel.     (Norman.)     Village  Work  in  India.     Revell. 

Lewis.  (R.  E.)  The  Educational  Conquest  of  the 
Far   East.     Revell. 

Brown.     (A.  J.)     New  Forces  in  Old  China.     Revell. 

Crafts.  (W.  E.)  Temperance  Argument  on  a  Mis- 
sionary Background.     The  Reform   Bureau. 

Griffis.     (W.   E.)     Verbeck  of  Japan.     Revell. 

Report  of  the  Edinburgh  Missionary  Conference. 
Vols.  II,  III,  VIII. 

Chang  Chi  Tung.     China's  Only  Hope.     Revell. 

Stewart.  (J.  R.)  Dawn  in  the  Dark  Continent. 
Revell. 

Hepburn.  (J.  D.)  Twenty  Years  in  Khama's  Coun- 
try.    Hodder  &  Stoughton. 

Chalmers.  (Jas.)  Pioneer  Life  and  Work  in  New 
Guinea.     Revell. 

Griffis.     (W.  E.)     A  Maker  of  the  New  Orient.  Revell. 

246 


X 


APPENDIX 

Dye.  (Eva  N.)  Bolenge.  Foreign  Christian  Mis- 
sionary Society. 

Clark.  (W.  N.)  A  Study  of  Christian  Missions. 
Scribners. 

Clark.  (J.  B.)  Leavening  the  Nation.  Baker  & 
Taylor. 

Weir.  (Samuel.)  Christianity  and  Civilization.  Eaton 
&  Mains. 

Brace.    (Loring.)  Gesta  Christa.    A.  &  C.  Armstrong. 

Scmidt.  (C.)  The  Social  Results  of  Early  Chris- 
tianity.    Isbester.     London. 

Uhlhorn.  (Gerhardt.)  Christian  Charity  in  the  Early 
Church.     Scribners. 

Nash.  (H.  S.)  The  Genesis  of  the  Social  Conscience. 
Macmillan. 

Kidd.     (Benj.)     Social  Evolution.     Macmillan. 

Patten.  (S.  N.)  The  Social  Basis  of  Religion. 
Macmillan. 

Freemantle.  (W.  H.)  The  World  as  the  Subject 
of  Redemption.     Longmans. 


247 


CLASS  QUESTIONS. 

INTRODUCTION. 
Section  1. 

By  what  means  would  Jesus  save  the  world? 

In  what  does  personality  consist?  What  relation  does  it 
bear  to  the  work  of  missions? 

What  is  the  Kingdom  of  God?  What  do  we  mean  by  "sav- 
ing the  world?" 

Discriminate  between  a  theological  and  sociological  Chris- 
tianity. 

In  what  way  does  the  work  of  missions  influence  the  social 
life  of  a  people? 

Discuss  missions  as  a  factor  in  creating  a  civilization. 

Section  2. 

How  does  the  missionary  overthrow  false  and  cruel  custom? 

Contrast  the  average  of  social  life  in  paganism  and  Chris- 
tianity. 

Must  a  people  adopt  western  customs  to  become  Christians? 

Can  a  people  be  transformed  and  made  independent  by  the 
external  gifts  of  civilization  alone?  Why  is  the  "crea- 
tion of  new  desires"  fundamental? 

Contrast  a  heathen  with  a  Christian  village. 

Enumerate  some  of  the  social  tasks  of  missions. 

Discuss  the  relation  of  missionary  work  to  social  progress. 

Section  3. 

Which  religions  have  been  missionary  and  which  not? 
Wherein  do  Confucianism  and  Buddhism  lack  social  force? 

What  in  Mohammedanism  makes  it  anti-social? 
Compare  the  missionary  motive  and  success  of  Christianity 

to  those  of  other  great  religions. 
What  has  been  the  secret  of  Christianity's  success  as  a 

missionary  religion? 
What  is  the  effect  of  missionary  work  on  the  moral  standards 

of  (1)  individuals?  (2)  society? 

Discuss  Christianity  in  comparison  with  other  religions  as  a 
universal  faith. 

248 


APPENDIX 

CHAPTER  I. 
Section  1. 

What  is  the  final  test  of  a  culture  or  a  religion? 

Which  religion  has  done  most  to  forward  progress?  Name 
some  of  the  fundamentals  it  contributes  to  social  prog- 
ress. 

Why  is  paganism  pessimistic  and  Christianity  optimistic? 

Relate  wherein  each  of  the  great  non-Christian  religions 
have  fallen  short  as  forces  for  social  progress. 

How  do  pre-Christian  civilizations  compare  to  Christian 
civilizations? 

How  account  for  the  difference? 

Discuss  the  secret  of  social  progress  in  Christian  civilizations. 

Section  2. 

Why  should  missionary  statistics  be  interesting? 

Is   Christianity   the   original   faith   of   any   people?     What 

in  its  history  justifies  the  belief  that  it  will  become 

the  religion  of  all  peoples? 
Relate  the  progress  of  missionary  work  in  each  of  the  great 

missionary  fields.     Give  the  figures  that  show  the  total 

progress  of  the  missionary  conquest. 
Enumerate  some  of  the  accomplishments  of  missions  that 

figures  can  not  tell. 
How  does  the  generosity  of  mission  churches  compare  with 

that  of  the  churches  at  home?     What  progress  is  mis- 
sionary interest  making  at  home? 

Discuss  the  interest  of  the  church  in  its  world-wide  task. 

Section  3. 

What  makes  Christianity  the  most  virile  factor  in  social 

progress? 
What  is  the  difference  between  a  negative  and  a  positive 

statement  of  the  Golden  Rule? 
Wherein  do  the  great  non-Christian  religions  fail  as  leavens 

for  social  progress? 
How  does  the  personality  of  Christ  contribute  to  the  social 

power  of  Christianity? 
What  is  meant  by  "the  sacrifice  of  service?"     How  does 

the  missionary  illustrate  it? 

Discuss  the  nature  of  Christianity  as  a  social  leaven. 

Section  4. 

What  was  the  social  status  of  our  Teutonic  ancestors  be- 
fore the  missionary  went  to  them? 

249 


APPENDIX 

What  can  you  say  of  democracy  in  Greece?  Of  the  status 
of  woman?     Of  children?     Of  slaves  in  Rome? 

What  fundamental  power  in  Christianity  has  always  pre- 
served it? 

In  what  social  state  did  the  missionary  find  the  various 
peoples  of  Europe?  How  long  did  it  take  to  transform 
them?  How  does  the  progress  of  missionary  work  in 
China  and  Japan  compare  to  that  made  in  Britain, 
Germany,  and  other  historical  lands? 

Discuss  the  comparative  progress  of  modern  missions. 

Section  5. 

What  evangelistic  power  is  found  in  ideas? 

What  idea  is  incarnate  in  the  missionary? 

What  particular  phase  of  missionary  work  is  winning  the 
approval  of  publicists  and  statesmen?     Why? 

In  what  does  the  missionary  found  progress?  What  re- 
lation dops  spiritual  transformation  bear  to  material 
progress  in  his  work? 

How  does  the  conversion  of  individuals  to  Christianity 
react  upon  society? 

Discuss  the  force  of  ideas  as  compared  with  the  force  of  arms  as 
a  factor  in  the  civilizing  process. 

CHAPTER  II. 
Section  1. 

What  relation  must  exist  between  husband  and  wife  to  make 

a  true  home? 
What  place  does  the  Koran  give  woman? 
What  part  does  the  family  meal  play  in  a  Christian  and  in 

a  pagan  home? 
How  does  the  position  of  woman  in  heathenism  compare  to 

that  given  her  in  Christian  lands? 
What  mars  the  patriarchal  household  as  a  home? 
What  can  you  say  of  divorce  in  non-Christian  lands? 
What  emphasis  does  the  missionary  put  upon  the  home? 

Discuss  the  Christian  home  in  comparison  with  the  heathen. 

Section  2. 

What  position  was  accorded  woman  in  Greece  and  Rome? 

Among  the  Teutons? 
What  place  did  early  Christianity  give  her?     Under  what 

emperors  was  she  first  given  greater  legal  rights? 
Enumerate  the  gifts  of  Christianity  to  her. 

Discuss  the  relation  of  "woman's  rights"  to  progress  in  history. 

250 


APPENDIX 

Section  3. 

State  the  position  of  woman  in  non-Christian  lands  to-day 

as  compared  with  her  position  in  pre-Christian  Europe. 
Describe  the  lot  of  Hindu  widows.     What  position  do  the 

Chinese  give  woman?     The   Moslems?     What  is   her 

status  in  savage  society?     To  what  extent  is  education 

given  girls  in  pagan  lands  to-day? 
Why  are  women  slowest  to  accept  Christianity? 
Why  have  the  Parsis  failed  to  give  India  their  ideals  for 

women? 

Discuss  the  comparative  status  of  womankind  in  Christian  and 
non-Christian  lands  to-day. 

Section  4. 

How  does  the  pagan  and  Christian  ideal  for  child  life  com- 
pare? 

What  was  "exposure"  of  children  in  Rome? 

What  legal  ri~hts  do  non-Christian  governments  usually 
accord  children? 

How  widespread  was  the  pagan  practice  of  infanticide? 

What  guarantee  of  right  does  Christianity  alone  accord 
children? 

Discuss  the  influence  of  the  missionary  upon  child  life. 

Section  5. 

What  is  the  social  settlement  idea? 

How  does  the  missionary  home  become  a  settlement?     How 

many  missionary  homes  are  there?     Tell  some  of  the 

concrete  ways  in  which  the  missionary  home  conveys 

Christianity  to  its  neighbors. 
Describe   some   examples   of   heathen   homes  and   villages. 

Contrast  with  them  those  of  native  Christians. 
What  are  the  main  influences  of  the  missionary  home? 

Discuss  the  missionary  home  as  a  social  settlement. 

CHAPTER  III. 
Section  1. 

What  part  does  benevolence  play  in  social  progress? 
What  can  you  say  for  the  benevolences  of  paganism? 
What  is  the  average  economic  condition  in  non-Christian 

lands?     What  result  does  drouth  or  flood  bring? 
Enumerate  some  of  the  inhuman  practices  of  heathenism. 
What  change  does  the  missionary  bring? 

Discuss  "the  struggle  for  others"  as  a  factor  in  human  progress. 

251 


APPENDIX 

Section  2. 

What  relation  does  healing  hold  to  missionary  work?     What 

use  did  Jesus  make  of  it? 
What  effect  does  physical  depression  have  on  moral  life? 
Why  does  the  medical  missionary  so  easily  get  a  hearing? 
Why  did  Buddhism  lose  its  primitive  charity? 
Enumerate  the  larger  influences  of  the  medical  missionary. 

Discuss  the  value  of  medical  missions  to  missionary  work. 

Section  3. 

What  is  the  state  of  scientific  knowledge  in  China?  India? 
Japan?     Africa? 

Enumerate  some  of  the  medical  practices  of  non-scientific 
lands. 

How  does  the  death  rates  compare  in  Christian  and  non- 
Christian  lands? 

What  is  the  fruitful  source  of  disease  in  non-Christian 
lands? 

What  treatment  is  accorded  the  insane  and  lepers  in  non- 
Christian  lands? 

Discuss  the  value  of  scientific  knowledge  to  missionary  work. 

Section  4. 

How  adequately  are  the  medical  needs  of  missionary  lands 

met? 
Describe  the  extent  of  medical  practice  under  missionary 

auspices. 
What  use  does  the  medical  missionary  make  of  preventive 

measures?     Give  instances  of  phenomenal  clinics. 
What  does  he  do  in  the  way  of  founding  a  native  medical 

profession?     Enumerate     instances.     When     will     his 

work  be  done? 

Discuss  the  influence  of  the   medical   missionary  upon  social 
progress. 

Section  5. 

Relate  instances  where  medical  missions  have  opened  doors. 
Why  is  the  physician  more  able  to  do  this  than  others? 
Tell  how  he  enlists  native  benevolence.     Give  instances. 
Describe  the  pervasiveness  of  medical  work;  the  way  in 

which  it  cultivates  native  sympathy. 
What  peculiar  work  can  the  woman  physician  do? 
Give  ex-Secretary  Foster's  estimate  of  the  value  of  medical 
missions. 
Discuss  the  evangelistic  value  of  missionary  benevolence. 

252 


APPENDIX 

CHAPTER  IV. 
Section  1. 

What  use  does  the  missionary  make  of  education?  Give 
statistics  of  missionary  schools. 

Enumerate  some  missionary  contributions  to  the  literature 
of  non-Christian  lands. 

How  extensively  does  he  supply  schools?  What  does  he 
teach  in  them?  Why  should  he  give  a  general  educa- 
tion? 

What  is  the  educational  status  in  non-Christian  lands? 

Relate  the  progress  of  education  in  Japan  and  China. 

What  is  the  fundamental  thing  in  education?  How  does 
the  mission  school  supply  it  in  comparison  with  the 
governmental  school  of  a  non-Christian  land?  What 
is  the  difference  between  a  governmental  school  in  a 
non-Christian  land  and  a  public  school  in  a  Christian 
land  in  the  teaching  of  morals? 
Discuss  the  place  of  Christian  education  in  civilization. 

Section  2. 

What  dangers  do  mere  material  gifts  take  to  inferior  civil- 
izations? 

How  does  Christian  education  supply  the  fundamental 
elements  in  a  civilizing  process? 

Cite  instances  of  missionary  education  furnishing  native 
leadership. 

What  is  the  extent  of  the  influence  of  educated  Christian 
men  in  Japan?  in  China?  What  handicap  are  they 
under  in  China?     Why? 

What  influence  does  Christianity  have  on  the  making  of  a 
democracy? 

What  was  Gladstone's  test  of  a  religion's  efficiency? 
Discuss  the  place  of  native  leadership  in  the  progress  of  a  people. 

Section  3. 

Is  the  primitive   mind   practical?     What   of   its  scientific 

habits?     Why  does  the  Malaysian  refuse  to  earn  wages? 

What    fundamental    does    industrial    training    supply    the 

primitive  mind  in  the  creation  of  social  progress? 
What  is  the  ideal  of  industrial  training  in  mission  schools? 
Relate  instances  where  industrial  training  has  created  in- 
dustrial communities. 
What  fundamental  economic  factor  does  civilization  supply? 

How  does  industrial  training  make  it  effective? 
How  does  industrial  education  react  upon  the  direct  pur- 
pose of  the  missionary  in  his  evangelistic  work? 
Discuss  the  place  of  industrial  habits  in  social  progress. 

253 


APPENDIX 

Section  4. 

Describe  the  state  of  female  education  in  China,  Japan, 

India,  Africa. 
Contrast  Christian  and  pagan  ideals  of  education. 
What  is  the  fundamental  necessity  for  educating  womankind? 
What  is  the  practical  necessity  of  all  missionary  education? 

How  applied  to  the  education  of  girls? 
How   does   an   educated   womanhood   affect   pagan   social 

customs? 

Discuss  the  value  of  educated  mothers  to  the  race. 

Section  5. 

Relate  instances  where  missionary  schools  have  been  ef- 
fective  evangelizing   agencies. 

What  effect  does  missionary  education  have  upon  the  Mos- 
lem mind?  Can  it  be  called  an  evangelistic  agency 
among  them? 

What  is  an  "evangelism  of  preparation?" 

How  does  the  school  appeal  to  the  educated  caste  of  a 
pagan  land? 

What  educational  necessity  rests  upon  missions  in  making  an 
effective  native  church? 

Discuss  the  reaction  of  environment  upon  the  evangelistic  work 
of  missions. 

CHAPTER  V. 
Section  1. 

Contrast  the  motives  and  benefits  brought  to  a  pagan  so- 
ciety by  the  trader,  soldier,  missionary. 

What  is  the  community  influence  of  the  missionary  and 
how  does  he  exercise  it? 

Contrast  the  results  of  paternalism  and  those  of  a  training 
in  the  arts  of  democracy. 

Does  white  contact  necessarily  result  in  the  decimation  of 
native  races?  What  kind  of  contact  decimates?  What 
kind  elevates? 

By  what  means  does  missionary  influence  affect  the  larger 
political,  social,  and  commercial  life  of  a  people? 

Discuss  the  civilizing  power  of  the  missionary  in  contrast  to 
those  of  trade,  war,  and  politics. 

Section  2. 

Are  there  any  democracies  among  non-Christian  govern- 
ments? What  type  of  rule  prevails  among  them? 
How  is  justice  administered? 

254 


APPENDIX 

Quote  various  authorities  on  missionary  influence  in  polit- 
ical progress. 

Give  instances  of  direct  missionary  work  and  influence  in 
transforming  the  political  life  of  a  people. 

What  indirect  influence  does  missionary  work  have  on  the 
political  life  of  a  people? 

Discuss  the  influence  of  the  missionary  in  the  evolution  of  modern 
government  in  mission  lands. 

Section  3. 

What  is  meant  by  "making  two  blades  of  grass  grow  where 
one  grew  before?" 

What  is  the  difference  between  "planting"  and  "rescuing" 
as  a  missionary  program? 

What  part  does  the  creation  of  new  wants  play  in  social 
progress?  Relate  how  missionary  work  stimulates 
them  and  give  instances  of  how  the  missionary  has 
supplied  them. 

Narrate  instances  where  he  has  become  a  "captain  of  in- 
dustry." 

What  fundamental  moral  sense  does  he  inject  into  trade 
and   industry? 

Discuss  the  relation  of  missionary  work  to  material  progress. 

Section  4. 

Enumerate  ways  in  which  the  missionary  becomes  the 
pioneer  of  civilization.  How  does  his  work  contribute 
to  trade  and  commerce? 

In  what  is  the  work  of  the  trader  inimical  to  missionary 
work?     Give  instances  of  conflict  between  them. 

How  does  the  missionary  prepare  a  people  for  the  innova- 
tions of  civilization? 

Enumerate  examples  of  missionary  trading  companies. 
What  financial  relation  does  the  missionary  hold  to 
them?  _  What  special  work  do  they  do? 

What  special  missionary  enterprise  is  advocated  by  Dr. 
Josiah  Strong?  Would  it  be  effective  as  a  social  in- 
fluence? 

Discuss  the  value  of  increased  earning  power  to  the  higher  arts 
of  civilization. 

Section  5. 

Enumerate  instances  of  international  agreements,  confer- 
ences, and  federations. 

Name  some  of  the  things  that  make  against  warfare  in  our 
time. 

255 


APPENDIX 

Narrate  how  the  nations  are  "preparing  for  war  In  times  of 
peace."     Who  pays  the  bills  finally? 

What  two  things  have  been  the  chief  causes  of  modern  war? 
Have  missionaries  ever  directly  brought  on  a  war? 
What  of  the  Boxer  rebellion? 

Enumerate  instances  where  the  missionary  has  brought 
about  peace. 

What  faith  does  the  missioner  have  in  the  potentiality  of 
the  least  of  men?     What  attitude  of  mind  does  he  culti- 
vate that  makes  for  peace? 
Discuss  the  missionary  as  a  factor  in  the  uniting  of  the  nations 

in  bonds  of  comity  and  peace. 

CHAPTER  VI. 
Section  1. 

Give   the   number   of   unevangelized.     What    of   the   task 
among  Moslems?     In  India?     China?    Japan?    Africa? 
The  unoccupied  lands? 
What   particular   promise   does  each   of   these   missionary 

territories  hold  out? 
What  supreme  call  comes  to  the  churches  in  face  of  the  task? 
Discuss  the  advantage  of  union  among  the  churches  for  the  sake 
of  evangelizing  the  world. 

Section  2. 

What  are  the  forces  that  make  for  Christian  union? 
What  gave   rise   to   the  various   denominations?     Do  the 

original  causes  still  obtain? 
Is  there  an  advantage  or  disadvantage  in  divisions  on  the 

mission   field?     What  advantage  in  union?     How  do 

our  home  divisions  hinder  unity  on  the  mission  field? 
Enumerate  spheres  of  work  in  which  co-operation  is  found 

easy. 
Give  the  great  fundamentals  on  which  all  churches  agree. 

Discuss  the  practicability  of  a  union  of  churches  on  the  mission 
field. 

Section  3. 

What  force  will  bring  union?  What  is  meant  by  an  "over- 
powering common  objective?"  What  are  the  first 
steps  to  union? 

Enumerate  the  great  standing  conferences  of  missionaries: 
The  permanent  Boards  of  Arbitration. 

Tell  of  the  Methodist  and  Presbyterian  division  of  the  field 
in  Korea.  What  approach  to  union  is  found  in  West 
China?     In  India? 

256 


APPENDIX 

Enumerate  instances  of  a  union  support  of  schools;  of  union 

within  great  denominational  families. 
What   specific   efforts   are   being   made   for   "geographical 

union?"     Tell  of  the  South  India  United  Church. 

Discuss  the  "overpowering  common  objective"  as  a  means  to 
Christian  union. 

Section  4. 

What  is  John  R.  Mott's  judgment  on  the  question  of  unity? 

What  economic  gain  would  come  to  missionary  work  through 
union? 

Enumerate  specific  opportunities  that  call  for  a  conserva- 
tion of  forces.  What  notable  modern  movements  are 
opening  work  and  preparing  the  way?  What  great 
need  of  a  gospel  of  peace? 

Why  should  the  native  church  be  a  united  church?  What 
sacrifice  will  it  cost  the  church  at  home? 

Discuss  the  value  of  a  united  versus  a  divided  native  church. 

Section  5. 

Is  the  intent  of  the  Savior's  prayer  for  unity  or  for  actual 
union? 

What  was  the  attitude  of  the  early  leaders  in  the  Reforma- 
tion toward  missions? 

Enumerate  ways  in  which  the  world-wide  spirit  of  unity  is 
manifesting  itself.  How  is  it  manifesting  itself  in  the 
churches  at  home?     What  are  the  chief  deterrents? 

How  have  divisions  hindered  the  church  in  doing  social 
work?  How  would  union  help?  Contrast  Catholicism 
and  Protestantism  in  the  direct  work  of  financing 
philanthropic  enterprises.  Why  is  the  former  strongest 
in  it? 

What  demand  does  social  progress  upon  the  mission  field 
make  upon  the  church?  Is  the  church  awakening  to 
its  social  duty?  What  effect  will  it  have  upon  Christian 
union? 

Discuss  the  social  work  of  Christianity  as  a  force  making  fo< 
Christian  union. 


257 


INDEX 

AND 

CROSS  REFERENCE  INDEX. 

(The  italicized  words  constitute  a  cross  reference  index.) 

Africa— 42,  45,  73,  85,  96,  101,  107,  111,  133,  135,  144,  157,  158, 

159,  162,  163,  167,  180,  185,  193,  197,  210,  213. 
American  Indian — 180. 
Arab— 37,  51,  71,  76,  137,  231. 
Arbitration,  Boards  of — 232. 
Asceticism — 1 14. 

Bhagavad  Gita — 50. 

Blantyre— 21, 148, 163, 190. 

Blytheswood — 1 62. 

Boxer  Rebellion— 207. 

Brahmanism— 25,  27,  30,  33,  36,  37,  38,  50,  71,  88,  111,  113,  116, 

145,  155,  164. 
Buddha — (see  Buddhism). 

Buddhism— 25,  26,  27,  30,  33,  37,50,  88,  91,  145,  170,  213. 
Buddhist,  Young  Men's  Associations — 135. 
Burmah— 25,  145,  165. 

Cannibalism — 1 1 2. 

Caste— 27,  37,  38,  108,  138,  155,  231. 

Charity,  Catholic— 238. 

Charity,  Christian  versus  Pagan— 17,  98,  110,  111,  112,  114,  117. 

Charity,  The  Missionary  and — 220. 

Children,  In  Missionary  Lands— 20,  78,  80,  88,  98,  103,  104,  106, 
111,  116,  122. 

China— 21,  26,  35,  36,  37,  41,  44,  45,  63,  66,  67,  71,  76,  84,  87,  88, 
89,  90,  91,  92,  95,  96,  97,  98,  102,  105,  107,  109,  110,  113, 
119,  120,  122,  127,  128,  129,  130,  131,  132,  135,  139,  145,  146, 
151,  152,  153,  160,  162,  166,  170,  182,  183,  194,  198,  211, 
220,  222,  224,  225,  226,  239. 

Chinese — (see  China). 

Chivalry— 82. 

Civilizing,  The  Process  of— 15,  33,  35,  36,  37,  39,  49,  52,  56,  67, 
69,  83,  91,  98,  106,  110,  134,  163,  172,  178,  189,  194,  195,  207. 

Conference,  The  Edinburgh— 216,  227,  230,  233. 

258 


INDEX 

Conference,  New  York  Ecumenical — 217. 

Conference,  Shanghai — 226. 

Conferences,  International — 201. 

Conferences,  Missionary — 221,  222. 

Confucianism— 25,  26,  27,  30,  33,  35,  36,  49,  50,  87,  145,  182. 

Confucius — (see  Confucianism).  .; 

Constantine's  Laws — 80,  95,  98. 

Congo,  The— 45,  127,  196. 

Co-operation,  The  Spirit  of — 236,  237. 

Corruption,  Chinese  Official — 182. 

Critics,  The,  of  Missions— 40. 

Death  Rates— 123. 
Denominational  Differences — 215. 
Denominational  Divisions — 221,  239. 
Divorce  in  Missionary  Lands — 76,  77,  81. 

Egypt— 78,  116,  147. 

Ethics,  Christian,  in  Japan — 29. 

Evil  Eye— 119. 

Famines — 98. 

Figis,  The^-M,  112,  187,  205,  214. 
Foot-Binding — 126. 
Foot-Binding,  Anti,  Societies — 96. 

Golden  Ages,  Pagan  versus  Christian — 35. 

Golden  Rule  of  Confucius  versus  Christian — 17,  49. 

Governments,  The  Missionary  and — 181-188. 

Greek  Civilization— 58,  60,  79,  80. 

Greater  Learning,  The,  of  Confucianism — 86. 

Hampton  Institute — 159. 
Hinduism — (see  Brahmanism). 
Hindus — (see  India). 

Home,  The,  Pagan  versus  Christian— -21,  71-78,  91,  99-105,  192. 
Hospitals,  Mission— 117,  119,  126,  128,  129,  135,  137,  220. 
Hygiene,  The  Missionary  and— 92,  103,  114,  126,  129,  130,  131. 
Ideas,  The  Conquest  of— 64,  66,  69,  90,  135,  136,  141, 143, 149,  150, 

172,  174,  178,  188. 
Illiteracy  of  Paganism— £9,  143,  144,  145,  163,  164,  165. 
India— -25,  37,  41,  42,  43,  45,  74,  75,  85,  86,  90,  91,  92,  95,  96, 

98,  102,  105,  110,  113,  116,  120,  123,  126,  132,  139,  144,  147, 

152,  156,  159,  163,  166,  172,  174,  187,  191,  194,  210,  211, 

226,  227,  231. 
Industrial  Education — 155-163,  189. 
Industrial  Enterprise  of  the  Missionary — 186-194. 

17  259 


INDEX 

Industry,  Missionary  a  Captain  of — 192-194. 
Industry,  Native  Habits  of— 157-160,  190. 
Infanticide — 94,  95. 
Insane,  Heathen  Treatment  of — 125,  132,  193. 

Japan— 21,  25,  42,  44,  63,  73,  76,  77,  85,  89,  107,  108,  118,  129. 

130,  135,  144,  146,  148,  152,  153,  162,  170,  171,  187,  207, 

212,  213,  220,  225,  226,  231,  238,  240. 
Japanese — (see  Japan). 
Journals,  Missionary — 220. 
Justinian's  Laws — 95,  98. 
Justice,  Savage  Type  of  — 185. 

Kanaka  Traffic— 196. 

Kingdom  of  God,  The— 12,  13,  15,  24,  41,  51,  56,  64,  65,  69,  132, 

142,  208,  218,  219,  221,  234,  235,  239,  240. 
Koran,  The— -71,  115,  133,  135,  170,  171. 

Korea— 41,  120,  123,  145,  166,  175,  178,  188,  207,  222,  230,  240. 
Koreans — (see  Korea). 

Labor,  Dignity  of — 60. 

Layman's  Missionary  Movement — 47. 

Lepers — 126. 

Life,  Value  of— 28. 

Literati— 171. 

Literature,  TJie  Missionary  and — 20,  43,  44,  61,  142,  220. 

Literature  Societies,  Christian — 184,  220. 

Livingstonia— 158,  159,  162,  190. 

Lovedale— 21,  144,  145,  162. 

Manu,  The  Laws  of — 87. 

Material  Progress,  The  Missionary  and — 67,    68,    70,    149,    162, 

179,  180,  189-200. 
Meal,  The  Family,  Social  Value  of— 73,  104. 
Medical  Missionary,  The — 113-119,  127-136. 
Medical  Practice,  The  Native— 119-122,  128,  139. 
Metlakahtla — 156. 
Method,  The  Missionary— 14-19 ,  24,  28,  49,  64,  68,  142,  144,  151, 

156,  163,  166,  167,  169,  171,  174,  188,  194,  197,  198,  200, 

207,  208,  219. 
Missionary  and  Other  Foreign  Influences — 21,  41,  55,  56,  66,  110, 

151,  177-188,  198. 
Military  Budgets  of  Christendom — 203. 
Modesty — 73. 
Mohammedansim— 26,  27,  37,  38,  51,  71,  76,  89,  108,  124,  137, 

139,  155,  163,  171,  172,  210,  230. 
Moravians,  Their  Missionary  Work — 48. 
Moslems — (see  Mohammedanism). 

Native  Christians— 66,  67,  77,  82,  149,  151,  152,  153,  217,  218. 
Native  Christian  Giving— 45,  48. 

260 


INDEX 

Native  Religions,  Missionary  Attitude  toward — 219. 

Neutralized  Territory — 202. 

Opium— 126,  134. 

Opportunity,  The  Missionary— 230,  231,  232. 

Orphanages,  The  "Iishi"  of  Japan — 176. 

Paganism,  Anti-Social  Elements  in — 22,  26,  27,  34,  36,  39,  50, 

51,  59,  72,  74,  76,  89,  90,  91,  93,  96,  157,  159,  163,  164,  168, 

186,  187,  211,  212,  220,  240. 
Patriotism,  The  New,  in  China — 183. 

Peace,  The  Missionary  and— 176,  177,  185,  186,  201-207,  232. 
Peace  Unions — 202. 
Persia— 84,  120,  133,  147,  210,  230. 
Personality,  Christian — 12,  55. 
Physicians  in  China  and  United  States — 127. 
Plagues— 123,  124,  131,  211. 
Pilgrimage,  The  Mecca,  and  Health — 123. 
Population,  The  Decimation  of — 179,  180. 
Poverty  in  Non-Christian  Lands— 96,    109,    110,    111,    113,    116, 

126,  212. 
Prescription  of  Native  Physician — 122. 
Press,  The  Mission — 143. 
Prison  Reform,  The  Missionary  and — 132. 
Privacy— 101,  105. 
Progress,  Theory  of — 23. 
Railroads,  in  China — 198. 
Railroads,  The  Missionary  and — 198,  199. 
Red  Cross,  The— 202. 
"Red  Rubber"— 195. 
Reformation  and  Missions — 234,  235. 
Roberts  College— 31. 

Roman  Civilization— 59,  60,  80,  108,  109,  117. 
Sanitation,  The  Missionary  and — 78,  102,  118,  124,  125,  151. 
Saxons,  The — 68,  81. 
Science,  The  Native  Mind  and — 157,  173. 
Schools,  Mission— 44,  77,  90,  111,  129,  130,  141-175,  189,  198, 

220,  223,  224. 
Shintoism — 25. 

Siam— 83,  89,  131,  145,  166,  230. 
Slavery— 26,  27,  60,  85,  88.  94,  117,  186,  197. 
Social  Service,  The  Missionary  and — 12,  17,  49,  52,  53,  54,  56, 

66,  67,  101,  112,  113,  114,  118,  127,  128,  129,  131,  133,  136, 

138,  143,  156,  178,  207,  208,  215,  219,  220,  239,  240. 
Social  Settlement,  The  Missionary  Home  a — 99,  100,  105,  106,  238, 

239. 
Socialized  Individual,  The— 11,  13,  33,  69,  149,  208. 
Sociological  Christianity— 14,  66,  82,  83,  91,  112,  114,  118,  129, 

178,  189. 

261 


INDEX 

South  Seas— 96,  107,  111,  112,  185,  192,  194,  205. 

Standard  of  Life — 24. 

Statistics,  Missionary— 26,  41-48,  62,  63,  76,  78,  86,  87,  89,  95, 
108,  111,  127,  128,  129,  131,  132,  135,  142,  143,  144,  146,  147, 
148,  150,  151,  153,  163,  164,  171,  174, 175, 194, 198,  203,  209. 

Stoic  Jurists— 58,  60,  95. 

Struggle,  The,  for  Others— 12,  108. 

Student  Volunteer  Movement — 47. 

Success,  Missionary — 42,  43,  44,  45,  61,  62,  63,  170,  174. 

Suspicion,  A  Heathen  Characteristic — 22. 

Sympathy.  A  Missionary  Contribution— 103,  107,  108,  111,  113. 

Syria— 78,  147,  160,  192,  196. 

Taoism — 50. 

Time  Problem,  The,  in  Missions — 62,  63. 
Territory,  The  Division  of,  by  Missions — 215,  222. 
Trade,  The  Missionary  and — 23,  195-200. 
Trading  Companies,  Missionary — 199. 
Turkey— 37,  38,  76,  85,  148,  166,  211,  250. 
Tuskegee  Institute — 159. 

Uganda— 42,  46,  69,  148,  191,  199,  206,  210. 

Union — 
Of  Colleges  on  Mission  Field— 222,  223,  224. 

Cost  of— 234. 

Economy  of— 229,  233. 

Evangelism — 225. 

Jesus  Prayer  for — 215,  234. 

Interdenominational — 226,  227,  240. 

Medical  Associations — 225. 

Native  Church  and — 223. 
Unions — 

Denominational — 225,  226. 

Of  Missions— 222,  223,  227,  228,  240. 
United  Church,  The  South  India — 227. 
Unity  in  Church  at  Home — 237. 
Unity  on  the  Mission  Field — 215-222. 
Unity,  The  Spirit  of,  Universal — 236. 
Usury,  Native — 194. 

Villages,  Native  (Christian  and  Non-Christian) — 19,  102,  103, 
104,  192. 

Wages  in  Non-Christian  Lands — 109,  212. 
Witch  Doctors— 122,  129. 

Woman  in  Pagan  Lands— 20,  26,  37,  59,  71-105,  138,  139,  163- 

169,  213. 
"Yellow  Peril,"  The— 203. 

Zulus— 18,  192,  205. 

262 


INDEX 


AUTHORITIES  QUOTED 

AND 

MISSIONARIES  REFERRED  TO 


jEsop — 31. 
Adamson,  Dr. — 132. 
Allen,  Dr.— 115,  132,  207. 
Ambassador,  Chinese — 195. 
Angell,  President— 212. 
Ansgar — 62. 
Aristotle — 54,  79. 
Argyle,  Duke  of — 64. 

Berry,  Dr.— 129,  132. 
Bishop,  Mrs.  Isabel  Bird— 72. 
Blytheswood,  Principle  of — 158. 
Boniface — 144. 
Braddock,  Dr.— 132. 
Bradford,  Dr.  Amory— 238. 
Brahman,  A — 155. 
British  Commodore,  A — 185. 
British  M.  P.,  A— 147. 
Buckle— 19,  20,  182. 
Butchart,  Dr.  James — 128. 

Canadian  Blue  Book — 156. 

Carey,  Wm.— 148. 

Carr,  Dr.— 133. 

Carver,  Dr. — 37. 

Casartelli,  Bishop — 158. 

Cassius — 60. 

Cato— 60,  80. 

Celsus — 54. 

Chalmers,  James — 67,  177. 

Chang  Ching  Yi — 233. 

Chrysostom — 1 60. 

Churchill,  Hon.  Winston— 200. 

Clark,  Wm.  Newton— 189. 

Clough,  Dr.— 137. 

Coillard,  Francis — 113,  186. 

Colenso,  Bishop — 18. 

Columba — 62,  144. 

Constantine — 82. 

Cory,  A.  E.— 134. 

Court,  Chinese  Supreme — 201. 

Crown  Prince  of  Korea — 135. 

Darwin,  Charles — 65. 


Dennis,   Dr.   James  S. — 51,  56, 

196,  197,  207. 
DeToqueville — 73. 
Director  of  Public  Instruction  in 

India — 152. 
Dollinger,  Dr.— 117. 
Duff,  Dr.  Alexander— 144,   152, 

171. 
Duncan,  Wm. — 156. 
Dye,  Royal  J.,  M.  D.— 127. 

Edgkins,  Dr.— 142. 

Elliott,  Sir  Charles  A. — 56. 

Elmslie,  Dr.— 133. 

Emerson — 50. 

Emperor,  The  Chinese — 184. 

Empress,  The  Chinese,  Dowager 

—135,  179. 
Fairbairn,  Dr.— 55,  208. 
Fichte— 51. 
Fisk,  John— 49. 
Foster,  Hon.  John  W.— 133, 138, 

185. 
Frazier,  Sir  Andrew— 20,  31,  211. 
French  Missionary,  A — 169. 
Gaekwar  of  Baroda — 92. 
Garrett,  Frank — 239. 
Gladden,  Dr.  Washington — 49. 
Gladstone— 31,  155,  177. 
Gibbon— 54,  81,  96,  233. 
Gordon,  Chinese — 64. 
Governor  of  New  Guinea — 185. 
Governor  of  the  Punjab — 206. 
Gray,  Bishop— 199. 
Griffis,  Wm.  Elliott— 151. 
Gulick,  Dr.  Sydney— 118. 
Gun2;a  Ram — 56. 
Gutzlaff,  Dr.— 142. 
Hale,  Edward  Everett— 68. 
Hall,  Charles  Cuthbert— 160. 
Harnack,  Adolph — 60,  61. 
Hart,  Sir  Robert— 203,  212. 
|  Henson,  Canon  Hensley — 239. 

263 


INDEX 


Hepburn,  Dr.— 129. 
Hetherwick,  Dr. — 175. 
Hindu  Native,  A— 69,  139. 
Holcombe,   Hon.    Chester — 109, 

112. 
Hunt,  John— 107,  112,205. 
Hunt,  Wm.  Remfrey — 135. 

Irish  Missionaries — 143. 

Ito,  Prince— 29,  135,  183,  212. 

Johnstone,  Sir  H.  H. — 56. 
Jones,  Dr.  J.  P.— 218. 
Journal,  Chinese  Woman's — 165. 
Journal,  The  Madras — 155. 
Julian  the  Apostate — 53,  110. 
Justin — 83. 
Juvenal — 60. 
Kang  Yu  Wei— 184. 
Katsura,  Premier — 149. 
Keeler,  Dr.— 121. 
Kelly,  Claude— 241. 
Kent,  Chancellor — 208. 
Kerr,  Dr.  John— 128,  132. 
Keshub  Chunder  Sen — 31,  150. 
Khama  the  Good — 186. 
Kidd,  Benjamin — 51,  52. 
King  of  Siam— 14,  68,  83,  131, 

150,  177. 
King  of  Toro— 135,  186. 
Kipling,  Rudyard — 307. 
Lankaster,  Dr. — 115. 
Lancet,  The — 125. 
Laws,  Dr.— 158,  175. 
Lecky— 30,  53,  54,  55,  111. 
Legge,  Dr.— 142. 
Lewanika — 186. 
Li  Hung  Chang— 129,  133,  135. 
Livingstone,  David — 42-69,  132, 
>    162,  171,  175,  197. 
Lowell,  James  Russel — 34. 
Lucian — 54. 
Macartee,  Dr. — 142. 
Mackay,    Alexander— 112,    136, 

193,  199,  206. 
Mackay,  Dr.— 104. 
Macklin,  Dr.— 134,  135. 
Mackenzie,  Dr.— 129,  133,  135. 


McLean,  A. — 165. 

Madras,  Bishop  of — 174. 

Mail,  The  Japan, — 56. 

Maurice,  Frederick  Dennison — 
34. 

Martin,  W.  A.  P.— 71,  90,  144. 

Marsden,  Samuel — 18. 

Marshall,  Professor — 51. 

Marshman,  Mrs. — 165. 

Mathews,  Shailer — 77. 

Maxim,  Sir  Hiram — 201. 

Mikado— 135. 

Milne,  Dr.— 142. 

Minister  of  Education,  The  Sia- 
mese— 166. 

Moffett,  Robert— 19,  186. 

Montesquiue — 49. 

Montgomery,  Mrs.  Helen — 167. 

Morrison,  Robert — 142. 

Mott,  John  R— 136,  228,  229, 
231. 

Mozoomdar — 150,  166. 

M'tesa— 113,  206. 

Muirhead,  Dr.— 142. 

Muller,  Max— 51. 

Murray,  Dr.— 132. 

Nail,  The  Japan — 56. 

Official,  A  Chinese— 110,  182. 
Okuma,  Count— 149,  213. 
Osgood,  Dr.  E.  I.— 124,  161. 

Packard,  Professor — 116. 
Parker,  Theodore — 52. 
Parker,  Dr.  Peter— 132. 
Paton,  John  G.— 107,  112,  196. 
Patrick,  St.— 143. 
Paul,  St.— 53,  64,  168,  181. 
Peabody,  Professor  Francis  G. — 

315. 
Pericles — 79. 
Persia,  Shah  of — 84. 
Philips,  Wendell— 33. 
Plato— 54,  60,  79, 80, 87, 137, 208. 
Proverb,  Chinese — 165. 
Proverb,  German — 150. 
Proverb,  Hindu — 72. 

Quintillian — 94. 


264 


INDEX 


Rambai,  Pandita— 90,  168. 
Ramsey,  Professor  Wm.— 21, 148. 
Ratzel— 30. 
Reifsneider,  Elizabeth,  M.  D. — 

128. 
Rijnhart,  Peter— 205. 
Root,  Bishop— 217. 
Root,  Senator— 202. 
Rousseau — 53. 
Ruskin,  John— 160. 

Sabbatier — 30. 
Seneca— 60,  80,  81,  96. 
Shi,  Evangelist — 134. 
Smith,  Arthur— 108. 
Spencer,  Herbert — 30,  149. 
Speer,  Robert  E— 92,  134,  239. 
Stanley,  Henry  M.— 69,  133. 
Stevenson,  Robert  L. — 67. 
Stewart,  James— 144,  157,  162, 

169. 
Storrs,  Dr.— 33,  84,  200. 

Tacitus— 57,  81. 
Taylor,  Hudson— 229. 
Tenny,  President — 130. 
Thoburn,  Bishop— 109. 
Thokambu— 187. 


Thompson,  Sir  Augustus  Rivers 

—211. 
Trask,  Katrina— 204. 
Traveler,  An  English — 205. 
Tsuda,  Miss— 168. 
Tuan  Fang,  Viceroy— 182,  183. 
Turkish  M.  P.— 230. 

Ulfilas— 61,  62. 
Ulpian — 60. 
Underwood,  Dr. — 184. 

Verbeck,   Guido— 21,   144,    183, 
184,  207. 

Warneck,  Dr.  Gustav — 177. 
Washington,  Booker  T. — 189. 
Weardale,  Lord— 207. 
Williams,  John— 107. 
Williams,  S.  Wells— 118,  207. 
Williamson,  Dr.— 115,  116. 
Willibrord— 62. 

Wilson,  Governor  Woodrow — 38. 
Wu  Ting  Fang— 136,  198. 

Xavier — 14. 

Yen,  Secretary— 183,  203, 


265 


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